Overview
- The Nature Cancer paper published Tuesday reports that a personalized DNA vaccine for glioblastoma was safe and triggered broad immune responses in most of a nine-patient Phase 1 study.
- The bespoke shots encoded 17 to 40 neoantigens per person, roughly twice the targets of earlier cancer vaccines, to widen the immune attack on each tumor.
- Signals of activity included 66.7% progression-free at six months and 66.7% survival at one year, with median overall survival of 16.3 months and one participant still recurrence-free about five years after diagnosis.
- Eight of nine patients mounted measurable immune responses, while the lone nonresponder was on the immunosuppressive steroid dexamethasone in a group with MGMT-unmethylated tumors that usually respond poorly to standard chemotherapy.
- Investigators and Geneos Therapeutics plan combination regimens and larger controlled trials to test whether these immune gains translate into clear survival benefits.