Breast cancer forms in the mammary glands and/or ducts. Tissues in these areas grow and multiply at unregulated rates, forming tumors. The body recognizes these tumors as healthy tissues and will not destroy them as it would a virus. According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, it could take as long as 10 years before a tumor is large enough to detect.

Most current efforts to treat breast cancer focus on how to destroy or stop the growth of already-present cancer cells using tumor antigens. The problem is that these methods essentially kill the tissues. It can also compromise the autoimmune systems of already vulnerable cancer patients. The Cleveland Clinic's vaccine takes a new approach: It’s designed to stop tumors before they’ve had a chance to develop.

Lead researcher Dr. Vincent Tuohy observed mice predisposed to breast cancer for 10 months. The vaccine targeted alpha lactalbumin, a specific protein found in most breast cancer cells. Half of the mice were given the vaccine, while the other half acted as a control group. At the end of the trial, none of the vaccinated mice had developed breast cancer. All of unvaccinated mice had.

"We believe that this vaccine will someday be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women in the same way that vaccines prevent polio and measles in children," Tuohy said in a Cleveland Clinic press release. "If it works in humans the way it works in mice, this will be monumental. We could eliminate breast cancer."

Although there is still much more to investigate before the vaccine is ready for human trials, the research team hopes to be able to administer the vaccine to women older than 40 and women at high risk in the next 10 years.

Visit the Cleveland Clinic’s website to read the press release, or visit Nature Medicine to read the study’s abstract.