An experimental vaccine is proving effective at battling the most-common form of deadly brain tumors, researchers at the Cedar-Sinai Medical Center announced on June 1.
The patients, who had brain tumors removed, were given a vaccine called ICT-107 to prevent recurrence. The vaccine is based on human cancer-fighting cells called “dendritic cells” and it proved effective against six cancer-causing proteins known to cause recurring tumors.
The immunization stimulated their immune system to detect and fight cancer cells, researchers said.
The Phase II clinical study was conducted by doctors at 25 sites across the nation, and involved treatments to boost the immune system’s strength against a recurrence of glioblastoma ultiforme (GBM), which was described as the most common and deadly malignant brain tumor.
A control group, which was one third of the 124 tested patients, were not given the vaccine but instead got injections of their own dendritic cells, and all patients were given standard cancer care, including brain surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
Forty-five of the patients are still alive, which encouraged doctors. GBM tumors usually return very quickly, but in these tests, patients gained an average of two extra months of life.
“This trial had two major findings,” said the Cedars-Sinai Brain Tumor Center director Dr. John Yu. “First, the time until a patient’s tumor progressed was significantly increased in patients who received the vaccine therapy.”
The study also found that a subgroup of patients, with HLA-A2 type tumors, found the vaccine to be “particularly beneficial,” Yu said.
