Additional years of life

Brain tumor vaccine has extended the life of patients for several years

Natalia Pelezneva, Naked Science

Scientists have summed up the results of the third phase of a clinical trial of a "vaccine" against glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain tumor. The new technique was able to significantly prolong the life of 30% of patients, while dangerous side effects were noted only in a few study participants. An article about the test results is published in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

The causes of glioblastoma are not completely clear. The standard treatment regimen includes surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. The average life expectancy after a patient is diagnosed with a tumor is 12-15 months. 3-5% of people manage to live with this diagnosis for more than five years.

The DCVax-L vaccine works with the help of dendritic cells (DC) obtained from the patient's own body. They serve as "scouts" – they introduce other cells of the immune system to the antigens of tumor cells that need to be destroyed. To get a personalized vaccine, researchers isolate monocyte cells from the patient's blood or tissues and grow dendritic cells from them. Then the DCS undergo "training" in the laboratory, interacting with cells obtained from the tumor. After that, a drug based on "trained" dendritic cells is injected into the patient's body – and his immune system begins to attack the tumor.

The study involved 331 patients with glioblastoma, all of whom had previously undergone surgery and subsequent chemotherapy using temozolomide. 232 of them received a personalized vaccine in addition to therapy. If the patient had a relapse of the disease after surgery, he was transferred to the group receiving the vaccine. In total, 86.4% of the study participants administered the new drug.

People treated with DCVax-L lived on average for more than 23 months after surgery. A third of them lived on average at least 40 months, that is, at least two years longer than doctors expected. Some of the study participants managed to live more than seven years. Serious side effects were noted only in seven study participants.

In the near future, scientists will study the results of experiments in detail to find out how effective immunotherapy is in the treatment of brain cancer.

Previously, scientists proposed to fight glioblastomas with the help of the Zika virus, using its ability to infect neurons.

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