Brain tumor vaccine

Hope for new brain tumour vaccine

One in four brain tumours are glioblastoma multiformes
A vaccine has been developed which may be able to fight the most aggressive form of brain tumour, scientists say.
US researchers say their vaccine increased survival times for the 23 glioblastoma multiforme patients they tested it on by at least 18 months.
Only four patients went on to die from the cancer, the study to be presented at a meeting of experts in the US said.
A larger trial of the jab, which works by targeting a protein thought to drive the tumour's spread, is now planned. It uses an artificial form of the protein, which is found on the outside of 30-50% of tumours, to alert the immune system to its presence and attack it.
The brain is tricked into thinking the protein, known as EGFRvIII, is foreign, and fighter cells in the immune system are sent in.
Amy Heimberger, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, said the vaccine was an easy-to-use "off-the-shelf" treatment that could potentially help half of all patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
She said results from the trial showed the vaccine significantly delays the progression of tumours until the cancer finds a new way to grow.
Survival times
But when tumours did grow again they did not display the EGFRvIII protein which led researchers to conclude that the vaccine had worked.
Professor Heimberger said: "This is a proof of concept, and optimal use of the vaccine may be with chemotherapy to further retard progression.
"Still, this is exciting because people have been trying to use immunotherapy against gliomas for a long time."
She also said that the median survival times were five months longer than those for GBM patients treated with the most up-to-date combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Patients with this type of tumour left untreated tend only to survive for four months.
GBMs affected adults between 40 and 60-years-old and represent about a quarter of brain tumours.