Her2/neu的高表达不仅是乳腺癌和多种其他肿瘤不良预后的标志，也是肿瘤免疫治疗的重要靶点。肿瘤疫苗在防治乳腺癌方面有着良好的前景，但是目前已进入临床试验阶段的产品还不能有效地防治这一恶性肿瘤。所以，肿瘤疫苗的研发需要新的方向才能在可用性、安全性和有效性方面有所突破。本课题组采用基因修饰的方法使红细胞携带Her2/neu肿瘤抗原，并通过研究其在乳腺癌动物模型中诱发的免疫反应和共刺激分子的免疫佐剂作用，探讨其作为肿瘤疫苗在预防和治疗乳腺癌方面的可行性。作为本项研究的前期结果，本课题组已经建立了高效的红细胞特异性慢病毒表达系统和可供活体监测的小鼠乳腺癌模型，为进一步研究携带Her2/neu的红细胞在抗乳腺癌上的作用和机制提供了可靠的技术基础。本项研究不但对发展高效的乳腺癌疫苗具有重要的指导意义，同时有助于奠定携带抗原的红细胞作为肿瘤疫苗的免疫基础，为发展更加有效的肿瘤疫苗提供新的途径。

Overexpression of Her2/neu is not only a tumor marker that is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer and other types of tumor, it is also an important target for cancer immunotherapy. Cancer vaccine is a promising approach for prevention and treatment of breast cancer. However, breast cancer vaccines currently developed at clinical trial stages are still incapable of effectively control this disease. Therefore, a new direction is needed to generate clinically usful vaccines that can be safely delivered to patients and are effective in inducing potent and long-lasting anticancer immunity.　This proposed research project will provide the proof of concept that erythrocytes carrying a cancer specific antigen can induce strong anti-cancer immunity and such effect can be used as an effective cancer vaccine strategy to prevent and treat breast cancer. So far, we have established an highly effective erythroid-specific lentiviral expression system and a live-imaging breast cancer animal model, which provided an excellent foundation for studying the anti-breast cancer effect and mechanism proposed in this project. Although the main focus of the propose project is to study cancer vaccine against breast cancer in an animal model,the conclusion of our research will have broad impact for developing novel and effective tumor vaccines.