Scientific development ‘could eliminate breast cancer’

Scientists have said they are on the way to developing a breast cancer vaccine, after trials on mice were found to prevent the disease from developing.

Staff at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute said the next step was to trial the vaccine on humans, though they warned that their findings were still in the early stages.

Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, the clinic’s Vincent Tuohy expressed confidence that the treatment will eventually be used to prevent breast cancer in the same way that children are immunised against common diseases.

He said: “If it works in humans the way it works in mice, this will be monumental. We could eliminate breast cancer.”

Dr Caitlin Palframan, policy manager at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, agreed that the vaccine could have “important implications for how we might prevent breast cancer in the future” but offered a reminder that it remains an early stage study.