WashU Vaccine Could Revolutionize Personalized Glioblastoma Treatment

Researchers at Washington University (WashU) Medicine have conducted a small clinical trial testing a new vaccine against glioblastoma. The formulation was administered to nine patients who had undergone surgery and chemo-radiation therapy to remove their tumors. The results of this study show promise in extending tumor-free survival for a disease that is currently hard to treat. 

The study, whose findings appeared in Nature Cancer, sought to test a novel DNA platform that designs a personalized vaccine aimed at preventing glioblastoma tumors from recurring. 

Glioblastoma grows aggressively and patients rarely survive for more than a year or two after diagnosis, and scientists have been racing to develop new treatments that can meaningfully alter this grim prognosis. 

The WashU team focused on neoantigens present on each patient’s tumor and they leveraged an algorithm that could identify nearly 40 different proteins on tumor surfaces. These proteins vary from one patient to another, which is why most existing treatments fail because they aren’t designed to target the specific tumor proteins within each patient. Glioblastoma evolves in response to any treatment administered and develops ways to evade the immune system. 

By targeting dozens of proteins on tumors, the researchers were able to ensure that the cancer could still be attacked by the immune system even if it mutated and some target proteins changed. The large number targeted ensured that even the changed tumor attributes could still be recognized by the immune system since it couldn’t change all the proteins on its cell surfaces. 

This phase 1 study’s findings are encouraging because one participant remained tumor-free five years after receiving the treatment while six reached the one year mark without tumor recurrence. Two study participants had their tumors recur before the one-year mark. Historically, only 40% of patients remained tumor-free for a year after receiving existing treatments, so the findings of this research push the envelope of patient survival. 

While the researchers focused on a single strain of glioblastoma, they are also testing the treatment approach on other subtypes of this deadly cancer to see if their findings can be replicated in those other varieties. 

The ramifications of this study are enormous given the theoretical possibility of using the same method to develop personalized vaccines against other cancers. 

For now, there is hope that this injectable vaccine can change the trajectory of patients’ lives after receiving a glioblastoma diagnosis. With other companies like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) also developing new formulations targeting various brain cancers like glioblastoma, it may not be very long before this aggressive brain cancer becomes treatable like many other types of cancer afflicting thousands of people around the world. 

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