Windber Medical Center is one of three hospitals joining Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. to take part in vaccine trial for gynocologic diseases, specifically ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. The research is similar to the ongoing patient study of the breast cancer vaccine. What's more, officials from Walter Reed say this new vaccine is "very specific and should be very effective". Officials anticipate to start enrolling ladies for the vaccine trial this spring.

Vaccines are the best known strategy for preventing diseases. It's the reason why we get flu shots, and inoculate kids for measles and mumps. And researchers tell us, the breast cancer vaccine is showing great promise. Diana Hurst's just finished her last in a series of shots for the breast cancer vaccine trial. Diana is one of nearly two dozen ladies, who is actively involved in the vaccine trial at the Windber Medical Center. She's valuable to the research, because she's a breast cancer survivor. And believes in the study so much, that every three weeks since August, she traveled 3,000 miles from her home in California to be a part of it. Diana says "If you live here locally.. do it, do , you're so lucky not to have to travel. And there's so .. well okay, there's some time out of your life. And the vaccine itself, there's some irritation, but really compared to the chemo, it's a walk in the woods". Diana's been cancer free for almost 3 years. She learned about the clinical trial, at a place where she finds a lot of her support - online. And Windber Medical Center wants more women to be involved. Since the study's inception 4 years ago at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. the trials have become less restrictive. Soon, published reports will show the vaccine safe, only time will tell if it's working. The lead investigator, Dr. George Peoples says "the process is very similar to a flu shot, in that you go and get your flu shot, and that raises your body's own immune system and your body's ability to recognize the flu virus. We're actually finding it's very easy to raise immunity against these tumor proteins. We take a tumor protein that's found on the tumor cells at a large quantity and we raise the body's immune system to recognize that specific protein so that if a tumor cell was in your body just like a virally infected cell were in your body. So your immune system has the ability to do that." The next step? Government approval. That's years off, but until then, there's little holding breast cancer survivors back from getting inoculated now. Diana adds "I think there's a fear of it possibly going wrong. Or some are of the mindset of it being a clinical trial of being a guinea pig but I don't look at it that way. You have a great opportunity to participate in something that's on the cutting edge of research." Ladies, it doesn't matter where you were diagnosed or treated for your cancer, you can still take part in the vaccine trials.

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