Health & Medicine
Agenus Brain Cancer Vaccine Increases Survival Rates
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Sep 17, 2013 01:03 PM EDT
Agenus Inc., a biotechnology company, released information regarding a recent analysis from a second trial of a experimental brain cancer vaccine, stating that the drug has increased the survival of patients without their cancer worsening during mid-stage periods when compared with other treatments. The organization notes that the analysis was first reported at the 81st American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting in May 2013.
"These additional results from the Phase 2 trial of HSPPC-96 in patients with newly diagnosed GBM are extremely encouraging and certainly justify a definitive randomized study," Andrew T. Parsa, MD, PhD, Lead Clinical Investigator and Chair of Neurosurgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine said, via a press release. "The patient-specificity and lack of toxicity, combined with patient selection to optimize immunotherapy efficacy, could position this vaccine as a break-through treatment for newly diagnosed GBM patients in the years ahead."
The vaccine, codenamed HSPPC-96, shows an almost 18-month median progression-free survival at a 160 percent increase versus the current standard treatment of radiation combined with the chemotherapy medication, temozolomide, according to Reuters.
This vaccine was being used in combination with other standard treatments in order to treat patients with a newly diagnosed aggressive form type of tumor that affects the brain, known as glioblastoma multiforme.
Depending on the findings of the trial data, Agenus plans to discuss more findings for the drug via the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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First Posted: Sep 17, 2013 01:03 PM EDT
Agenus Inc., a biotechnology company, released information regarding a recent analysis from a second trial of a experimental brain cancer vaccine, stating that the drug has increased the survival of patients without their cancer worsening during mid-stage periods when compared with other treatments. The organization notes that the analysis was first reported at the 81st American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting in May 2013.
"These additional results from the Phase 2 trial of HSPPC-96 in patients with newly diagnosed GBM are extremely encouraging and certainly justify a definitive randomized study," Andrew T. Parsa, MD, PhD, Lead Clinical Investigator and Chair of Neurosurgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine said, via a press release. "The patient-specificity and lack of toxicity, combined with patient selection to optimize immunotherapy efficacy, could position this vaccine as a break-through treatment for newly diagnosed GBM patients in the years ahead."
The vaccine, codenamed HSPPC-96, shows an almost 18-month median progression-free survival at a 160 percent increase versus the current standard treatment of radiation combined with the chemotherapy medication, temozolomide, according to Reuters.
This vaccine was being used in combination with other standard treatments in order to treat patients with a newly diagnosed aggressive form type of tumor that affects the brain, known as glioblastoma multiforme.
Depending on the findings of the trial data, Agenus plans to discuss more findings for the drug via the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone