Researchers At Health Institutions Like Penn Medicine Are Testing Vaccines to Prevent Cancer

Researchers across the country are making progress toward vaccines that train healthy people’s immune systems to eliminate signs of cancer before it develops. At Penn Medicine's Basser Center for BRCA, healthy volunteers who carry BRCA gene mutations, like Philadelphia resident Sara Walker, are participating in a cancer vaccine clinical trial. If the study is successful, the work could eventually extend to more cancers or other risk factors, noted Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the Abramson Cancer Center.