TAMPA, Fla. — Researchers in the Tampa Bay area are studying how to use a patient’s own immune system to fight their cancer.
Over the past few years, Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Lauren St. Germain has reported on this breakthrough cancer treatment. She brought viewers the story of Dallas Carroll – a young mom who was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer. She was part of a clinical trial at Moffitt Cancer Center which included this type of treatment – called Dendritic Cell Vaccine Therapy – and now she has no evidence disease.
St. Germain learned doctors at Moffitt are taking this technology a step further to hopefully help even more breast cancer patients.
“I found out that I had stage two HER2-positive grade three cancer in 2024. Like May, early May 2024 after a routine mammogram,” said Jennifer Hadden.
“When you found out, what was that like?” St. Germain asked.
“Very scary. Kind of shocking when they did the biopsy, basically I was just like, that does not look right. And she's like, no, that doesn't look great,” said Hadden.
Jennifer Hadden is a wife and mom of two.
“There was lots of nights, you know, going to sleep just like gripping my husband's hand, going like, I don't know if I'm going to make it, you know, like I'm freaking out,” said Hadden.
When it came time for treatment, she enrolled in a clinical trial through Moffitt Cancer Center using dendritic cell therapy alongside a less intensive chemotherapy regimen.
“As soon as they mentioned about using your own body to be able to fight something that existed, I knew that it was right for me,” said Hadden.
Dr. Heather Han at Moffitt Cancer Center leads that clinical trial. She’s a Medical Oncologist specializing in Breast Cancer Treatment at Moffitt.
“So we have conducted this clinical trial using dendritic cell therapy in combination with HER2 therapy with the less intense chemotherapy,” said Dr. Han.
She explained they are working to find treatment that's very effective but is less toxic.
“A lot of time we use a lot of different medication specifically chemotherapy to treat breast cancer patients, which has a lot of side effects. Specifically, for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, patients are typically treated with two different types of chemotherapy in combination with HER2 targeted therapy prior to surgery, which has a lot of toxicities,” said Dr. Han.
For the dendritic cell therapy portion of the trial, researchers create a personalized vaccine using a patient’s own dendritic cells (specialized immune cells) which help trigger an immune response against the cancer. The vaccine is then injected directly into the tumor.
“I saw the tumor change week by week which was incredible,” said Hadden.
“What was that like for you to see that tumor shrink?” asked St. Germain.
“It was awesome. It was so exciting because you felt like you were actually doing something. You felt like, oh my gosh, like, this is my body doing the work that it was supposed to be doing in the first place,” said Hadden.
Hadden finished treatment, rang the bell in November of 2025, and had a double mastectomy.
While Hadden’s experience is just one example, Dr. Han tells me the results are encouraging.
“So overall, there was no new safety concerns. So treatment with the cell therapy was well tolerated with a manageable toxicity. And this efficacy that we ever evaluated with pathologic complete response rate was, remarkable. So we're very excited about this clinical trial data,” said Dr. Han.
“And now that you are on the other side, what's that like for you and your family?” asked St. Germain.
“It’s amazing. Obviously, it's been, through my journey and just talking about it openly with, you know, people at my company, people of friends, family, they've found out that they had cancer because they didn't, neglect a lump that maybe they thought they had already had or whatever,” said Hadden.
She continued, “And they were like, had it not been for you, I would not have paid attention to this. I would not have advocated for myself. I would have just let it go.”
Hadden has a message for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis today.
“Listen to yourself, listen to your body, advocate for yourself, do all the things that you need to do because you have a long life to live 942
Dr. Han tells St. Germain the future is bright for this type of treatment and there are now trials focused on using the dendritic cell vaccine without chemotherapy.
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