Study hints at why an aggressive form of brain cancer is hard to treat Very important article. It points out how the tumor is usually made up of at least 2-4 different subtypes of GBM, and most importantly, that the cells are able to change from one type to another. This may account for how easily a tumor evades treatments. It also opens up a lot of possibilities such as targeting the mechanism that the cells use to change back and forth - perhaps have them all change to an easier cell to kill, Or just target the four subtypes with 4 different treatments and the cells would have no place to hide!
A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Phase 2 Trial Of Dendritic Cell Vaccine ICT-107 In Newly Diagnosed Patients With Glioblastoma This is the final report on the phase 2 trial of ICT-107 for newly diagnosed GBM. It was declared a "failure" because the median survival did not improve enough. However, digging into the details, there are many patients who responded very well, and there were no side effects. As with the other immunotherapy trials, this had a long survival tail which does not get reflected in the mean survival statistics. I still feel this is a worthy treatment to try.
I just heard (and reported in a recent news blast) that this vaccine is making a comeback - it was sold to a new company who hopefully will run another trial in the subgroups that benefitted!
