FROM ARMY TIMES...
Kellie Trombitas fought through surgery and two rounds of chemotherapy for 10 long, difficult months before she was declared cancer-free Dec. 21.
But one thought always lingers in her mind.
"I hope it never comes back," said Trombitas, the wife of Maj. Gen. Simeon Trombitas, commanding general of Army South at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. "That's always on our minds. Thinking about doing all of this again is sometimes too much."
Trombitas volunteered to join a worldwide clinical trial - being conducted by her doctor among others - for a breast cancer vaccine that could erase her fears for good. On Jan. 19, she became the first patient in the study, which is still looking for other volunteers.
Developed by Col. (Dr.) George Peoples, chief of surgical oncology at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, NeuVax is a vaccine that targets breast cancer patients who have been treated and are in remission. Its goal is to reduce or eliminate the risk of the cancer recurring.
Peoples, who also is the director of and principal investigator for the hospital's Cancer Vaccine Development Program, has worked on this vaccine, which carries the generic name E75, since the early 1990s.
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