World’s First Vaccine For Brain Cancer
Last Revised on July 9, 2007Love Your Health Money Family & Relationship
A US-based biotech company, Northwest Biotherapeutics, has said that it had won approval for commercial use of the world’s first vaccine against brain cancer in Switzerland. The company is planning to start making DCVax-Brain available before the end of September. Under the Swiss approval plan, the company will be able to make the vaccine in the United States and make it available for the treatment of patients with brain cancer at select venues in Switzerland.
Brain cancers are among the swiftest of lethal cancers. Patients with the disease have on average only 14.6 months to live after diagnosis. To attack cancer cells, DCVax-Brain treat the cancer by priming the patient’s immune system. The patient’s own master immune cells, known as dendritic cells, are taken from the bloodstream while they are still at an immature stage. These precursor cells are then matured in a lab dish while being exposed to biomarkers from the patient’s own tumour, thus helping them to identify the cancer foe. Once they reach adult stage, the cells are injected back into the patient’s body.
DCVax-Brain has been granted orphan drug status in both regions, which can mean a swifter approval process, and longer market exclusivity. The therapy is currently in the second phase of the typical three-phase process of testing a new drug for safety and efficacy before it is licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other medical watchdogs. It is being tested on 141 patients in the US with glioblastoma multiforme, an especially aggressive form of cancer.
Data from the trial study has shown that the patients treated with DCVax-Brain more than doubled the survival time compared to counterparts who did not get the drug, meaning that they had lived to more than 33 months or were still alive at the end of that phase of the trial. In addition, unlike chemotherapy, the drug does not cause any debilitating side effects. In addition, the treatment was found to delay recurrence of the disease by nearly three fold, from 6.9 months to 18.1 months among patients who were newly diagnosed.
Sources: Yahoo News Australian News
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July 9th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
These news give hope to many people
Can I post you articel on my Medicine News Blog?
Thanks
July 10th, 2007 at 12:59 am
very interesting piece, i hope the FDA will approve this drug quickly. i hope this break thru will lead to a great revolution in the field of cancer treatment
July 10th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Hi Rachel, please do so. Thank you.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:44 am
This is good news indeed.My prayer is that these guys will consider putting Africa amongst the list of beneficiaries as fast as they can.