American scientists from St. Louis (USA) are completing a successful blind randomized controlled trial of the DCVax-L tumor vaccine. Preliminary results have shown that the new therapy has improved the survival rate of patients with aggressive glioblastoma. This was announced in a press release on the MedicalXpress website.
The study involved 331 patients who were randomly assigned to two groups. In the first, the volunteers received standard chemotherapy using a personalized vaccine, in the second, chemotherapy was combined with a placebo. Moreover, according to the test protocol, there were twice as many people who received the vaccine than people in the control group. In addition, anyone could receive the vaccine if their illness progressed after the initial treatment. Thus, 90 percent of the participants eventually received the study drug.
Typically, patients with glioblastoma live, on average, less than 18 months after diagnosis. During the study, the average survival rate in volunteers was just over 23 months. In this case, 100 patients survived to 40.5 months. While scientists do not yet know exactly which of them actually received the vaccine, as the study continues, they are confident that DCVax-L has increased life expectancy.
The vaccine is specific to each patient. After surgery, during which a significant part of the tumor is removed, the malignant tissue is exposed to immune cells - dendritic cells. They absorb glioblastoma antigens, after which they are injected back into the patient. Lymphocytes in the patient's body recognize the antigen on the surface of the dendritic cells and attack the remaining tumor cells that have the same antigen.
Although glioblastoma is often referred to as "brain cancer," the term "cancer" is generally used to refer to carcinomas that develop from the epithelial tissue of various organs. Glioblastoma, on the other hand, occurs due to the uncontrolled division of glia - auxiliary cells that surround the nervous tissue, providing impulse transmission and performing other auxiliary functions.
