QIMR clinical trial hope for patients with deadly brain cancer

People who are diagnosed with this brain cancer are usually told they have just months left to live. But now a Queensland clinical trial is showing great success in the treatment of this deadly disease.

A QUEENSLAND clinical trial is showing great success in the treatment of a very deadly brain cancer.

Researchers have found that patients who received a cellular immunotherapy for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) on average survived longer than would have been expected without the treatment.

The team also found the treatment was safe and identified clues that will help them improve it in future.

The results of the phase I clinical trial have been published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

GBM is the most common malignant brain tumour in adults.

It is a particularly aggressive cancer that usually recurs quickly after treatment. Patients survive an average of 14-17 months after diagnosis.

The cellular immunotherapy was developed by the head of QIMR Berghofer’s Centre for Immunotherapy and Vaccine Development, Professor Rajiv Khanna AO, and his team.

It was tested in a phase I (safety) clinical trial of 25 patients at Briz Brain and Spine in collaboration with neurosurgeon Professor David Walker.

Professor Khanna said the patients were given the immunotherapy as a supplementary treatment after receiving surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation.

“At the end of this clinical trial, 10 patients were still alive and five of those still had no signs of their cancer recurring,” Professor Khanna said.

“The 25 patients who received the treatment survived for an average of 21 months. This is an improvement on the current survival rates.

“The results were even better in the 20 patients who received the immunotherapy before their tumours had recurred.

“Those patients survived for an average of 23 months, which is six to nine months better than we would have expected without this treatment.

“Considering GBM is a highly deadly cancer, these are very promising results.”

Neurosurgeon Professor David Walker said the trial had confirmed the treatment was safe for use in GBM patients.

“None of the patients experienced any adverse effects from the immunotherapy, which gives us confidence in progressing further clinical trials,” Professor Walker said.

“Brain cancer survival rates have hardly changed in decades. This trial gives us hope that we might be on the cusp of changing that.”