Glioblastoma is the most common and also most lethal form of primary brain cancer, but the standard of care hasn’t changed in nearly two decades. Typical prognoses are just 15-17 months from diagnosis, and the five-year prognosis is just 5%. A recent BioPharma article covered a new brain cancer vaccine in Phase 3 trials that aims to extend those numbers.. Northwest Biotherapeutics’ DCVax-L vaccine has shown to extend survival in newly-diagnosed glioblastoma brain cancer patients for several months, which reached the primary and secondary endpoints of the trial.
The DCVax-L employs the patient’s own immune cells and antigens from the tumor to create a fully personalized therapy. The manufacturing process takes just 8 days, and produces multiple years’ worth of doses that are frozen and administered to the patient’s physician as needed. The company is now preparing applications for regulatory approval of the vaccine.
