Hope for deadly brain cancer as first-of-its-kind personalized vaccine found to DOUBLE survival time
Patients with the deadliest form of brain cancer have been thrown a lifeline after a personalized vaccine in development showed striking results in an early clinical trial.Researchers found the treatment helped most glioblastoma patients survive for at least two years – roughly double the typical survival time for the aggressive disease.Glioblastoma, which originates in the brain's glial cells, strikes around 12,000 Americans every year and is considered one of the most lethal forms of cancer. Even with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, most patients die within 12 to 18 months of diagnosis.But scientists at Washington University in St Louis have developed a vaccine that uses material from a patient's own tumor to train the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer.Remarkably, one participant in the trial is still alive and cancer-free almost five years after her diagnosis – an outcome seen in only a small fraction of glioblastoma cases.Researchers also said the vaccine caused no serious side effects, raising hopes it could eventually become part of standard treatment for one of the deadliest cancers doctors face.'We are extremely encouraged by these results,' said Dr Tanner M Johanns, lead study author and assistant professor in the Division of Oncology at WashU Medicine. Personalized vaccines parts of a patient's own tumor to train the immune system to fight the disease (stock image)
'This kind of vaccine is a first for glioblastoma, and it is exciting to think how we can leverage this individualized therapeutic DNA cancer vaccine platform to make a positive impact on the lives of patients who are fighting this disease.'The treatment works by taking RNA – a form of genetic material – from a patient's tumor and identifying proteins unique to their cancer.Read More Teen was told she'd die in six months... a decade later her 'miracle' survival has stunned doctors Scientists then create a personalized vaccine that exposes the immune system to these proteins, known as antigens, effectively teaching the body to recognize and destroy cancer cells carrying them.It works on the same basic principle as conventional vaccines, which train the immune system to recognize viruses before they cause serious illness.Experts describe glioblastoma as a 'cold' tumor because it is particularly skilled at hiding from the immune system and avoiding detection.However, the experimental vaccine – developed by Geneos Therapeutics – appears to reawaken the body's immune defenses by targeting up to 40 proteins specific to an individual patient's tumor.That is roughly twice as many targets as other cancer vaccine approaches tested in diseases such as breast and colon cancer.'Our thinking was that if we could generate a broader range of immune responses against those proteins then it may lead to a more potent vaccine compared to other vaccine platforms with more limited protein targets,' Dr Johanns said. Senator John McCain died of glioblastoma in 2018 at age 81. He served in Congress right up until his death Beau Biden, pictured here with father President Joe Biden, died at 46 years old in 2015 from a glioblastoma The phase 1 trial, published in the journal Nature Cancer, involved nine patients recently diagnosed with glioblastoma at the Siteman Cancer Center in St Louis.Patients received their first vaccine dose around 10 weeks after surgery. They were initially given injections every three weeks for nine weeks, before moving to booster shots every nine weeks thereafter.All but one participant – who was taking immune-suppressing steroids – showed increased immune-cell activity, suggesting the vaccine had successfully triggered an immune response.Two-thirds of patients showed no progression of their cancer six months after surgery. Two-thirds also survived beyond both the one-year and two-year marks.Among them was retired nurse Kim Garland from the St Louis area, who was diagnosed in 2021 after her daughter-in-law noticed worrying symptoms including confusion, forgetfulness and persistent headaches.'I was forgetting things, things that should have been very obvious,' Garland, now 67, said.Scans later revealed a 6.5-centimeter tumor in her brain – about the size of a small avocado. Surgeons removed as much of the mass as possible before she was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma, the most severe form of the disease. Kim Garland, a participant in the WashU trial who is still alive nearly five years after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, is pictured above with the study's lead investigator, Dr Tanner JohannsHer tumor belonged to a particularly hard-to-treat subtype known as unmethylated MGMT glioblastoma, which responds poorly to chemotherapy.Now, nearly five years later, Garland and her husband Scott are planning a long-delayed summer vacation and looking forward to spending time with their children and 15 grandchildren.'What we're hopeful for is that through research like this, someday, when another person hears the words "you have glioblastoma" as their diagnosis, it will not cause as much anxiety,' Scott Garland said.'Maybe, they will be told: "This is the cancer you have, but it is very treatable".'
