Harvard Medical School et. al. other research news

Harvard University researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that amino acids 654-662 of the membrane-spanning portion of the Her2/neu protein can induce HLA-A2-restricted, tumor-specific populations of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in vitro. The killer cells were generated from fresh tumor specimens.

The HER2/neu oncogene is over-expressed in 30-40 percent of all breast and ovarian cancers, and is widespread in other cancers as well, including gastric malignancies. The extremely low levels of HER2/neu expressed in normal tissue allows potential therapeutic use of the peptide, the researchers concluded. ...