For J.K. Grant, participating in a test of a potential lung cancer vaccine is, as she puts it, her “civic duty.”
Grant was diagnosed with lung cancer last year, which resulted in surgery to remove tumors and parts of her right lung.
Shortly after, her physician asked if she would be willing to participate in a study testing whether a new vaccine is effective in preventing a recurrence of the most common type of lung cancer.
Grant didn’t hesitate. “No, not a bit,” said Grant, 65, of Everett. “It might help someone else.”
The vaccine is being tested at Providence Regional Cancer Partnership, one of 141 sites nationally and 400 sites across the world working on the study. A total of 2,270 patients are expected to participate.
“Lung cancer, despite our best efforts, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of all three, has a high rate of recurrence — 30 to 60 percent,” said Dr. Kimberly Costas, a thoracic surgeon leading the study at the cancer partnership.
Scientists hope that the vaccine will be able to prompt lung cancer patients’ immune systems to fight off a recurrence.
“Our body doesn’t normally fight cancer because it’s derived from our body’s cells,” Costas said. “So our body doesn’t recognize cancer cells as foreign and doesn’t mount an immune response against them.”
Scientists who developed the vaccine found a specific protein that is found only in lung cancer cells, Costas said. They figured out a way to replicate the protein and coupled it with a chemical to boost the body’s immune response.
The hunt for the protein was doubly hard. It is found only in one type of lung cancer, called non-small cell lung cancer. Even among these patients, only 30 to 50 percent have it, Costas said.
If the vaccine is found to be effective, it would work the way most vaccines work, Costas said. The body would make antibodies against the protein. “If the cancer recurs, it will fight off the cancer, like your body flights off the flu,” she said.
In Snohomish County, lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer, but the leading cause of cancer deaths.
Studies of new drugs most often include some people who get medicine and some who don’t, so there is a way to measure its effectiveness.
In this study, for every two people who get cancer-fighting medicine in their vaccine, one patient does not, getting a placebo.
All study participants get injections over a period of 27 months. The first five shots are given every three weeks. The next eight injections are given every three months.
Patients are closely monitored, Costas said, receiving regular exams, medical imaging and other tests.
While patients know they have a one-in-three chance of getting the placebo, there are benefits to participating in the study, Costas said. Patients involved in clinical trials of potential cancer-fighting drugs have better survival rates. That may be because of the regular monitoring and checkups required by the studies.
Seven patients are now enrolled in the study in Everett, Costas said, joining 139 patients nationally. Even with this relatively small number, Everett ranks among the highest nationally in number of patients enrolled at one site.
Grant had her fourth injection on Friday. Oncology nurse Jody Velaborja asked her if the injection stung as she administered the shot.
“No,” Grant replied at first, then moments later said, “The more you get it in (the vaccine), the more it hurts.”
Grant said she feels she has side effects from the injections, “like I had the flu; everything hurts.”
She’s been told she’s the only patient among the seven participating in the Everett study so far that has reported side effects. But Grant said she hasn’t considered dropping out. “I started it, I have to finish it,” she said.
Grant said her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and she was previously treated for breast cancer.
Marlene Brown, 71, of Mount Vernon, said she joined the study in January 2009 after reading about Costas, and just had her 10th injection a few weeks ago.
“Of course you don’t know if you’ll get the real injection or the placebo,” Brown said. Even the people giving the injections don’t know, she said.
Brown said she didn’t know about the medical study before being told about it by Costas.
“I thought it was a great opportunity,” Brown said. “I was for anything that would help at all.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
Trial under way
All participants in the study of a potential lung cancer vaccine must have a specific type of lung cancer, called non-small cell lung cancer, a specific protein in their tumor called MAGE-A3, must sign up for the study within four weeks of surgery to remove their tumor and be willing to get periodic injections over 27 months.
For more information on the test of a lung cancer vaccine, call Lynn Berg, a research coordinator at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, at 425-297-5577.
Source: Dr. Kimberly Costas, thoracic surgeon
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