Early-Stage Progress on Glioma Vaccines

Extract

An experimental vaccine for glioblastoma patients showed promise in a recent Phase II study. The peptide-based immunotherapy vaccine, CDX-110, also known as rindopepimut, is designed to mobilize the immune system to attack only malignant cells which express a mutant protein, EGFRvIII, which fuels the unchecked growth of cancer cells. Only 30% of glioblastoma patients carry this mutation.

Forty-three of the 65 patients (66%) enrolled in the study were progression-free at 8.5 months from diagnosis, or 5.5 months from start of vaccination, compared to a progression-free rate in matched historical controls of 53% ( Journal of Clinical Oncology preprint, Oct. 4, 2010). Although the results should only be considered preliminary—since they are from Phase I and II trials, which are not controlled, and not designed to detect survival benefits—they have made some researchers optimistic about the future of vaccines for glioblastoma.

“These results, together with preclinical vaccine data, are exciting for a disease with a very bad prognosis,” said James Rutka, M.D., Ph.D., president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and chair of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the study. “The trial indicates that the immune system can be induced to recognize a cancer-specific antigen, cross the blood-brain barrier, and mount a significant enough immune response to affect mortality.”