Glioblastoma is a very aggressive form of brain cancerwhich frequently affects young adults and children. It is a cancer that remains difficult to treat, unlike other cancers for which recent advances immunotherapy have considerably increased life expectancy.
But the results of a trial conducted by researchers from the Universities of Geneva (Switzerland) and Heidelberg (Germany), could well change the situation. European researchers have in fact unveiled a “therapeutic vaccine” against glioblastoma, which can be adapted on a case-by-case basis, according to the specific characteristics of the brain tumor of each patient.
Each tumor has its “bar code”
“Our goal is to develop ‘à la carte’ vaccines, adapted to the individual characteristics of the tumor and the patient’s immune system. To do this, we have defined the fingerprint of each tumor allowing it to be individually recognized by cells of the immune system, the goal being to identify the tumor “barcode” and use it as a personalized vaccine, different for each patient“explains Prof. Pierre-Yves Dietrich, professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva and co-director of this clinical trial with Wolfgang Wick, head of the neurology clinic at the University of Heidelberg.
A promising first trial on 15 patients
Fifteen patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma received successively two therapeutic vaccines, the composition of which was personalized for each according to genomic (the tumor identity card) and peptide (tumor fingerprint) analysis. , “as well as depending on the ability of each patient to prepare a
immune response against each component of the vaccine “.
Both types of vaccines induce intense immune responses never seen before in the treatment of brain tumors. “We have overcome an important obstacle which seemed insurmountable 5 years ago, and which opens real hope for
the treatment of these still devastating diseases “ rejoices Professor Dietrich.
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