DEVELOPMENT OF HER-2/NEU (HER2) ICD MEMORY IMMUNITY AFTER VACCINATION

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Despite recent advances in the conventional treatment of solid tumors, patients with breast and ovarian cancer may relapse after definitive therapy because of residual microscopic disease. One approach to the eradication of residual sub-clinical disease has been the development of tumor vaccines that focus on generating tumor-specific T cell immunity. Cancer vaccine studies have now demonstrated that patients can develop tumor antigen specific immune responses post-immunization. While most cancer vaccine studies have focused on the generation of measurable immunity during active immunization, few studies have evaluated the persistence of immunity or the generation of immunologic memory. Indeed, it is the development of immunologic memory to the vaccinating antigen that would be the key to the success of a tumor vaccine to protect against relapse. Thus, we propose to determine whether patients previously immunized with a HER2 Intracellular Domain (ICD) DNA vaccine develop a memory T cell response to HER2.