Vaccine against deadly brain cancer shows promise

	Tweet

A small, early-stage trial of a therapeutic brain cancer vaccine developed by ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd showed that nearly half the patients were alive without their cancer worsening 18 months after diagnosis, the company said on Wednesday.

The Phase 1 trial involved 16 patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadly form of brain cancer.

They were treated with ICT-107, an experimental dendritic cell based cancer vaccine, following the standard care of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

"We are targeting specific antigens that are on cancer stem cells ... the only population of cells that can really propagate a tumor,” said Dr. John Yu, director of surgical neuro-oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and ImmunoCellular’s chief scientific officer.

A year after diagnosis, all of the patients were alive. After two years, 80% were alive.

Historically, after a year with standard treatment, 61% of glioblastoma patients are alive, and 26.5% are alive after two years, according to the company.

In the ImmunoCellular trial, median overall survival had not yet been reached at the 26.4 months analysis point, with 12 out of 16 patients alive. Seven patients continued to live with no disease progression.

Side effects seen in the trial included fatigue and skin rash.

Dr. Yu said ImmunCellular is planning a mid-stage trial of the vaccine that would include between 30 and 50 patients.

---
By Deena Beasley

LOS ANGELES (Reuters)

RELATED STORIES:
Protein associated with growth of tumors may prevent the spread of cancer   Researchers Find Marker for Severity in Adult Brain Cancer   Sensitizing tumor response to cancer therapy   Munition exposure linked to brain cancer in US vets   Brain tumor discovery could lead to new treatment   Erlotinib dose-adjusted for smoking status effective as first treatment for head and neck cancer   Psychiatric symptoms can be first sign of cancer   Tooth Loss Linked to Esophageal, Head and Neck, and Lung Cancer   Most patients can speak and swallow after combination treatment for head and neck cancer   Minimizing side effects from chemoradiation could help brain cancer patients live longer   Researchers Discover Non-Surgical Test for Brain Cancer   Combining radiation therapy, chemotherapy safely treats head and neck cancer patients   Personalized gene therapies may increase survival in brain cancer patients   Non-invasive imaging can detect mutations within a brain tumor   Recurrent Brain Cancer Responds to New Treatment   Venom protein may lead to brain cancer cure   Could smoking pot cut risk of head, neck cancer?   Alcohol and cancer: is drinking the new smoking?   IMRT improves outcomes in patients with extranodal lymphoma of the head and neck   Gene therapy increases survival for end-stage head and neck cancer   Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors   Potential for non-invasive brain tumor treatment

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]