“Amazing clinical results” achieved by a new vaccine for a deadly brain cancer

A vaccine for glioblastoma, the most aggressive and deadly type of brain cancer, has succeeded in extending the lives of four patients in the first clinical trial of its kind.

The new cancer vaccine is based on the same technology used in Covid-19 vaccines, but with some key differences. It works by reprogramming the tumor microenvironment (TME) using a sample of the tumor itself.

The vaccine helps the immune system “recognize” the malignant tumor and provides it with an “instruction manual” for the complete copy of the tumor, revealing the mechanism for turning on or off each gene in the tumor.

This leads to the reprogramming of the immune system's defenses against cancer, and a more successful attack.

In the latest clinical trial, 4 patients with glioblastoma received two or four doses of the vaccine, which led to significant and rapid immune activation, as the researchers observed (a few hours after giving the doses) a significant increase in “pro-inflammatory proteins,” which stimulate cells. Deadly white blood.

This resulted in short-term side effects, such as nausea, low-grade fever, and chills, which gradually subsided over the next day or two.

In this regard, oncologist and vaccine research pioneer, Elias Sior, from the University of Florida, said: “This was very surprising given how quickly the immune attack occurred, and this is crucial to uncovering the after-effects of the immune response.”

Historically, glioblastoma patients who undergo chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery live for approximately 6 months without any progression of the disease.

With the new vaccine, one patient lived for about 8 months without developing the disease, while another patient lived for 9 months.

The third patient lived for another 9 months with recurrent glioblastoma. No accurate information about the life of the fourth patient has been reported yet, and he is the first participant in an expanded Phase 1 clinical trial.

The promising results are based on a previous experiment that tested the vaccine on 10 pet dogs suffering from brain tumors. Currently, the average survival rate of dogs that received the vaccine is 139 days.

“I hope this will be a new model for how we treat patients, and a new technical platform for how to modulate the immune system,” Sayor says.

It is noteworthy that the average survival period after recurrent glioblastoma ranges between 5 and 8 months.

The study was published in the journal Cell.