A personalized vaccine to treat glioblastoma, a type of incurable and rapidly evolving brain cancer, is in the study phase. The vaccine indicated a robust immunological response in initial clinical trials and appears to increase the survival of patients after surgery to remove the tumor.
The study is co-led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis and is in the first stage of analysis. The results of this first phase indicated that, in patients with more aggressive forms of the disease, there were no side effects and demonstrated more efficacy than surgery alone, followed by standard chemoradiotherapy. A long-term survivor patient can remain without disease recurrence for up to five years after treatment.
“We are extremely excited about these results,” said Tanner M. Johanns, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Division of Oncology at Washington School of Medicine. “This type of vaccine is a first for glioblastoma, and it is exciting to think about how we can leverage this individualized therapeutic DNA cancer vaccine platform to make a positive impact,” he added.
The vaccine uses modified DNA molecules to stimulate the patient’s immune system, which contains tumor-specific proteins. By activating the immune system, it is able to recognize these proteins and .
Studies warn that the vaccine is not very effective in preventing . Glioblastoma can evolve in such a way that it is capable of “dodging” the immunological attack promoted by the vaccine. However, researchers state that it was developed to recognize a large number of cancer cells, which is already beneficial for the patient.
Another advantage of the treatment is to transform glioblastoma, called a “cold tumor” because it can hide the tumor environment from the immune system, into a detectable tumor and susceptible to eradication mediated by the organism itself. The vaccine is therefore able to improve the patient’s immune response by targeting cancer cell proteins and transforming the tumor’s “environment”.
“We chose to use the DNA platform as a basis because it allows us to target more proteins than any previous vaccine has been able to,” Johanns said. “Our idea was that if we broadened this range of immune responses, the vaccine would be more potent compared to others.”
The DNA-based vaccine platform has so far been able to target up to 40 proteins specific to each patient’s tumor — double the number of proteins that have been targeted by any cancer vaccine therapy to date, significantly increasing the chance of success.
