Vaccine That Activates Body's Defense Against Brain Cancer Moves Forward in Human Trials
- Lidi Garcia
- May 13
- 2 min read
Glioblastoma vaccine trial advances. Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive type of brain cancer with few effective treatment options. A new study in the US is testing a vaccine called SurVaxM, which helps the immune system attack tumor cells. Early results show it is safe and may increase patient survival. The study will continue, offering hope for a new treatment for this difficult cancer.
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain cancer in adults. It grows quickly and invades healthy brain tissue, making it difficult to remove completely by surgery. The tumor usually affects people between the ages of 45 and 70, but it can occur at any age.
Even with standard treatment, which includes surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy with the drug temozolomide, patients have an average survival rate of about 15 months after diagnosis. That’s why new treatments are urgently needed, especially options that can increase the length and quality of life of patients.
Faced with this challenging scenario, the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in the United States is conducting a promising clinical study called SURVIVE, which is evaluating the therapeutic vaccine SurVaxM in patients recently diagnosed with glioblastoma.
Unlike traditional vaccines, this vaccine does not prevent disease, but trains the immune system to identify and attack tumor cells, based on a protein called survivin, found in large quantities in glioblastoma cells.
SurVaxM was developed within the Roswell Park center itself and has already demonstrated safety and potential in previous studies. Now, in a phase 2B study, researchers want to understand whether the vaccine really helps patients live longer and with better quality, when combined with standard treatment.
After an interim analysis (a kind of “mid-course check”), the study will continue without changes, which indicates that the initial results were positive enough to justify its continuation.
So far, the SurVaxM vaccine has been shown to be safe and well tolerated, meaning it does not cause serious side effects and can be used alongside chemotherapy and radiotherapy without compromising patient well-being.
This is especially important for those already facing the effects of such an aggressive cancer. In a previous study, 93.7% of patients treated with SurVaxM were alive one year after diagnosis, a significantly higher number than the 65% expected with traditional treatment.
In addition to glioblastoma, SurVaxM is being tested in other conditions:
- In children with different types of aggressive brain tumors, such as medulloblastoma and high-grade gliomas.
- In adults with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.
- In patients with neuroendocrine tumors, which are rarer and affect hormone-producing cells.
These studies are being conducted in partnership with institutions such as the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and demonstrate the growing interest in immunotherapy as a new frontier for treating difficult-to-treat cancers.
The continuation of the SURVIVE study represents real hope for patients with glioblastoma, by exploring an innovative strategy that activates the immune system itself against the tumor. If the final results confirm the benefits already observed, SurVaxM could become an essential tool in the fight against one of the most difficult cancers in medicine today.
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Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
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