Eliminating the progenitor cells that drive tumor initiation is an attractive strategy for cancer prevention. In a CPI-funded project, Dr. Kornelia Polyak’s group at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston developed an mRNA vaccine targeting alpha-lactalbumin (LALBA), a protein expressed by mammary luminal progenitor cells, to help the immune system recognize and eliminate these cells. In a recent publication, Dr. Polyak’s group shared their findings that the vaccine reduced tumor development and improved both tumor-free and overall survival in a rat model of mammary tumor. These finding provide evidence that targeting the cell-of-origin with a vaccine may be a strategy for preventing cancer development and could have implications for breast cancer prevention in high-risk women.

Read the full article in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Breast-cancer-prevention-by-prophylactic-lalba-mrna-lnp-vaccination