Doctors Develop Breast Cancer Prevention Vaccine
A vaccine to stop the spread of breast cancer in people has been developed by a team of US specialists, one of whom is Turkish.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s research has been dubbed a “very important development” by US media.
The research’s principal investigator, Atilla Soran, a breast surgery oncologist, told Anadolu that the US has shown a lot of interest in their vaccination. It is currently being tested on 10 participants in a clinical study.
He stated that 50 participants would eventually take part in the trial. He claims that among all cancers in women, including in Turkey, breast cancer is one of the most common.
“We think that this vaccination will prevent breast cancer from spreading throughout the body”, says Soran.
The Turkish professor said that the most important thing that the research team has achieved is the development of a vaccine that has been developed and tested in a laboratory for years and is now moving toward a clinical trial.
Read Also:
Read Also: Hormonal Contraceptives Can Cause Breast Cancer
He said that volunteers would be watched over for the following five years and that the vaccine would only be approved for commercial use if it had been deemed safe to use in larger clinical trials.
According to Soran, lung cancer is the cancer that kills more women than breast cancer.
Only a small percentage of the millions of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in Nigeria each year receive an early diagnosis. He recommended that all women over the age of 40 get a mammogram every year.
“If you have about 1,000 mammograms, if you have screened 1,000 women, you will have caught one or two very early-stage breast cancer,” he continued.
The professor added that “one in a thousand, in fact, when multiplied by millions, it makes a very large figure,” adding that, as with many diseases, expensive procedures like radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and surgery can be avoided with early diagnosis.
Breast cancer research began in the 80s and 90s, with clinical trials slowing down due to its non-acute risk. Genetics cause nearly 10% of breast cancer cases, with women with certain genes having an 80 percent chance of being diagnosed. Regular check-ups, walking, and avoiding alcohol are crucial for reducing breast cancer risk.
