May 18, 2009 7:28 pm US/Eastern
HealthWatch: Promising New Brain Cancer Vaccine
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Brain cancer is one of the deadliest forms of the disease, and is difficult to treat.
Now, an experimental vaccine is offering a glimmer of hope that it may prevent the recurrence of tumors, and extend patients' lives.
Peter Rauch went to the doctor when he started forgetting things. He thought it might be dementia, but a scan revealed he had a golf ball-sized tumor in his brain.
"I was rather stunned with that," Rauch says.
The tumor is called a glioblastoma multiforme, the same type Senator Ted Kennedy has.
Peter had surgery to remove it, but historically with this disease the tumor almost always returns and, on average, patients don't survive more than two years.
"We can't cure this tumor with surgery, and we can't cure it with radiation and chemotherapy, so we need a new technique," Dr. Theodore Schwartz, of the New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, says.
Dr. Schwartz is trying to find out if an experimental vaccine could be that new technique.
Rauch underwent a second treatment of multiple shots designed to keep the tumor from returning.
The vaccine works in a unique way: once injected, the drug puts a tag on cancer cells, like a target, helping the immune system find the cancer and kill it.
"A vaccine makes sense because the immune system can get in there and get to those microscopic cells," Dr. Schwartz says.
In an earlier study, results were promising. On average, the vaccine significantly improved survival, giving patients an extra year and a half of life.
"The initial results looked very good," Dr. Schwartz says.
Doctors are now testing the vaccine on a larger group of patients, including Rauch.
"I think there's a pretty good chance, if this stuff works, I can survive this," Rauch says.
If the results of this trial are successful, the vaccine could be available to more brain cancer patients in a couple of years.
Dr. Schwartz says that, if the trial proves effective, the vaccine therapy could be added on the existing regimen of chemotherapy and radiation to treat brain cancer.
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