Scimex: A US study, reporting on the results of a recent clinical trial, has
revealed that anti-cancer vaccines are better able to fight aggressive
brain tumours when the tumour region itself is pre-conditioned to
receive the vaccine. The researchers found that when inflammation was
induced around the tumour, it helped to direct the vaccine to the
appropriate part of the body, which then activated a strong immune
response against the tumour.
Improved survival in patients with aggressive brain tumours who are
treated with certain anti-cancer vaccines may be achieved by
pre-conditioning the tumour ready . Inducing inflammation at this site
helps the vaccine travel to the appropriate part of the body, where it
can activate an immune response against tumours, a small clinical trial
in Nature this week indicates. Although the trial was performed in only
12 patients, the findings may pave the way for new ways of improving the
efficacy of anti-cancer vaccines.
Dendritic cells — special cells that travel to the lymph nodes where
they can initiate an immune response against infectious agents or
tumours — have been used to develop anti-cancer vaccines. However,
dendritic cell vaccines have shown limited promise in the treatment of
advanced cancers.
Exposing the vaccination site to toxins that induce inflammation can
improve the honing of dendritic cells to the lymph nodes and enhances
anti-tumour responses, John Sampson and colleagues demonstrate. In a
clinical trial in 12 patients with glioblastoma multiforme, an
aggressive form of brain cancer, three patients that received
pre-conditioning treatment were still alive at the end of the study
(representing a minimal survival at least two times longer than those
receiving the vaccine alone). The findings, corroborated in mice,
provide insights into the factors that underlie the success of dendritic
cell vaccines and suggest an approach to improve sub-optimal vaccines.