Sponsored by
This is a very important publication. It shows that combining a personalized dendritic cell vaccine with an immune-boosting adjuvant can improve treatment efficacy. This Phase 2 study specifically looked at two different immune modulators - poly-ICLC and resiquimod - and found that poly-ICLC triggered a stronger immune response when given in combination with the vaccine. Although the trial was not designed to make survival comparisons, the authors reported noticeable differences between the study groups. For the IDH mutant/grade 3 cohort, all 4 patients who received the vaccine + poly-ICLC were still alive at the time of data cutoff (3 patients >10 years and 1 patient >9 years). For the grade 4 (GBM) patients, there was a trend towards improved progression-free and overall survival with the vaccine adjuvant compared to the vaccine alone, but the differences didn't reach statistical significance (likely due to small number of patients).