On Nov. 8, 2024, Anixa Biosciences announced updated positive data from the Phase 1 clinical trial of its breast cancer vaccine (NCT04674306) at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 39th Annual Meeting, held in Houston, Texas. The trial was being conducted in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic with funding by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The vaccine targets a lactation protein, α-lactalbumin, which is only expressed in the breast when a woman is lactating but not at other times in her life or in other tissues. However, when a woman develops breast cancer, including TNBC or other types of breast cancer, many of the malignant cells will express α-lactalbumin. Activating the immune system, through vaccination, to direct cytotoxic T cells to the tumor cell expressing this protein may provide preemptive immune protection against emerging breast tumors that express α-lactalbumin.