How to Change the World

It happens when a lightning bolt of insight — zap! — illuminates the unknown. For Vincent Tuohy, PhD, of Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, the lightning bolt struck in slow motion. His research team found that activating the immune system against a breast-specific lactation protein safely and effectively prevented breast tumors in mice. Month after month, the results were the same. “That was my eureka moment,” says Dr. Tuohy, the Mort and Iris November Distinguished Chair in Innovative Breast Cancer Research. “I realized this could be used to prevent breast cancers that express this protein.”

This insight led to his invention of a vaccine for preventing triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive and lethal form of the disease. The vaccine targets α-lactalbumin, a lactation protein found in most triple-negative breast cancers but not in the normal tissue of women beyond their childbearing years. Activating the immune system against this protein provides preemptive protection against breast tumors and prevents them from growing. A study is underway at Cleveland Clinic to determine the maximum tolerated vaccine dose and to optimize the immune response.

It took years in the laboratory to get to this point. Along the way, Dr. Tuohy was undeterred by skeptics. When research funding was hard to come by, philanthropy stepped up, to the tune of 20,000 donors.

The promise of Dr. Tuohy’s “retired protein hypothesis” doesn’t end with TNBC. Other tumors might also be nipped in the bud by targeting other tissue-specific proteins. Dr. Tuohy is already pursuing vaccines for ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. A similar approach could work against prostate cancer. The ultimate goal is prevention — stopping cancers before tumors develop.

We regularly update the operating systems on our mobile phones to keep them running smoothly, Dr. Tuohy notes. Why not update our aging immune systems with vaccines? “A vaccine is just a set of instructions for keeping you healthy,” he says. He envisions a 21st-century vaccine program to protect us from diseases that we confront as we grow older, in the same way that 20th-century vaccines shielded us from childhood infectious diseases. “The joy of science,” Dr. Tuohy says, “is that we can change the world with it.”