I am going to try and explain in  layman’s terms what I am actually doing.  I am taking part in a Tumour Vaccine Trial.  It really is cutting edge.  In order to be eligible for this trial I have to fit a particular range of criteria.  That criteria is hard to fit, but luckily I do.  There are many types of breast cancers and mine is called “Her 2 positive”.  This is a hormone driven  cancer and is a protein that we all have in our bodies and it is used for many important things and then once it is used for that important function (for example, helping your body to make breast milk when breast feeding) it then sort of shrinks away.  But for some reason with me my T cells didn’t destroy it because they didn’t recognise it as no longer needed and foreign so it kept growing and growing, forming a mass  and that became my cancer.

Signing my consent forms with the girls

In your body you have these things called FBI cells that travel around you and  they travel around looking for things that are foreign in any way, shape or form.    I was given the vaccine interdermally on the skin because this  is where the FBI cells like to live.  This is where they look for things first because your skin is your first mechanism and defence system for the outside world,.  When these cells are given the vaccine, they take the pieces  of the vaccine, and they recognise that it is something foreign  and they bring it back to your lymph nodes under your armpit usually.  This is  is where your memory T Cells live.  The memory T Cells look at the cells that the FBI cells have given them and they say “oh that’s foreign, thats an invader” and so they attack it and kill it.  They ratchet up the immune system and they go through my body looking for the Her 2 protein that was given to them in the vaccine.  So if I have any kind of microscopic disease left in my body, those T Cells will recognise these Her 2 proteins as foreign invaders and will attack them and kill them, so this will keep me in remission without me evening knowing that this has happened.  The idea is that once these Her 2 proteins have been destroyed, everything will calm down but  the T cells in my armpit will remember them as a foreign invader, and over time when the FBI are travelling around my body, and if they find in different ares, like say my liver or bone that the Her 2 is over expressed, then when they will take it back to the T Cells in my lymph who will immediately recognise it is an invader and start an immune response to kill it – thereby keeping my remission forever!  That is the plan!!!

This vaccine is the main part of the trial.  It has been used before in many other trials and has had very good results.  In addition to this vaccine, the TVG group want to test a mushroom extract called PSK.  They want to see if this will make the effects of the Tumour Vaccine stronger.  PSK is widely used in Japan for breast cancer patients.  The PSK is delivered in a tea that is drunk twice a day. In this trial 50% of the patients will be given a placebo – and we don’t know, not even the Doctors, which of us has the placebo or not.  We will find out at the end of the trial.

Arriving at the University of Washington Medical Centre we were greeted by a very friendly team – Stephanie, Sacha, Erica and Doreen. I had spoken to some of these people for two years on the phone,  waiting to get on this trial – so it was great to put a names to faces.  I was shown to my room where we spent the next two hours going through all the consent forms, explanations of what was to happen and all the side effects I may or may not have.

About to be vaccinated by Erica

Twenty two vials of blood were taken from me, plus a tetanus injection.  The tetanus injection was given to me to see how my immune system responded before treatment.  Once I “passed” everything it was ready for the actual vaccines.  They didn’t tell me that these injections really hurt and there were 3 of them.  Each injection took about 1 minute to give and its delivery was quite complicated.  Lots of deep breathing got me through it. I was then taught very precisely how to make up my “tea” which I must drink twice a day.

After that I was monitored for an hour, and once it was established that I had had no allergic reaction, I was then given my tea.  Yuk – its disgusting – thank God its only for 5 months.    A few hours later I had to have another blood draw, and then I was free to go.  Guess where I went – back to the hotel, straight to bed – it had been an exhausting day emotionally, physically and mentally, and coupled with the jet lag, my chemo in London just before I left ,and spending the day on the boat all of yesterday, I was bushed.  

I can’t believe it – we have finally done it!  I have to go back tomorrow for more blood draws and then I am finished, until the same process happens again in four weeks, eight weeks and twelve weeks.

I am constantly amazed that wherever I go for medical treatment I am also surrounded by the most positive and smiley people.  They are all true Angels and make this whole process so much easier to bare.