Tackling gliobastoma (GBM), the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor, may be an uphill task in the health domain. Heeding to this, experts have laid hands on the brain tumor vaccine HSPPC-96 that can extend survival of recurrent gliobastoma (GBM) patients by two to three times more than the current median survival rate. HSPPC-96 purportedly isolates the heat shock protein, which is part of the immune system.
The efficacy of this vaccine was tested on patients diagnosed with first or subsequent recurrence of GBM. All the subjects had to go through surgery prior to vaccine therapy. As the vaccine is made from the patient’s own tumor, the surgery had to be seemingly performed at one of the participating sites.
“The findings are very favorable for patients with this deadly form of brain cancer. The vaccine is one of the few immune therapies designed specifically for patients who are not newly diagnosed, and these encouraging results make this a promising therapy for a more extensive Phase 3 trial,†commented Andrew Sloan, MD, one of the authors of the study presented at ASCO and Director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
The vaccine therapy apparently begins within 5 weeks after surgery. It probably contains four weekly injections, followed by bi-weekly injections for up to 52 weeks. Since the vaccine is made from a patient’s own cells, it can supposedly serve as a personalized medicine.
The study was presented at The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.