New Vaccine Extends Survival on Aggressive Brain Cancer Patients

Glioblastoma multiform or GBM is the most common and most aggressive of the primary brain tumors. It affects men slightly more than women in all age groups, but recent findings reveal incidence increase among the elderly. This highly malignant form of brain tumor infiltrates brains extensively and enormously, giving few sufferers only about 3 years of survival rate and an even fewer patients about 5 years. Usually, sufferers survive only 12 months after diagnosis. The medical improvements hardly provide the sufferers hope. Even major improvements in adjuvant chemotherapy, neuroimaging, neurosurgery, radiation treatment techniques, and supportive care shed a very dim light of survival.

Long dark night sure ends to let light shine, and this is also true for glioblastoma sufferers. In their relentless efforts to find cure for this aggressive brain cancer, medical scientists at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University Medical Center proved to be just the right people in lab coats, having found a vaccine that extends survival on glioblastoma patients.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the vaccine acts by blocking EGFRvIII, a growth factor that fuels the brain cancer’s aggressiveness. The new EGFRvIII vaccine eliminates cancer cells that carry the said cancer marker, thus extending patient survival with a longer progression-free period.

According to Darell D. Bigner, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Cente and the senior of the study, “About a third of all glioblastomas are fueled by a very aggressive cancer gene, called EGFRvIII; these tumors are the “worst of the worst.” Our study showed that the vaccine eliminated all of the cancer cells carrying this marker in all but one of our study participants.”

The study had 18 participants who were all recently diagnosed with glioblastomas. Their conditions were compared to that of 17 other control patients. Both groups have undergone surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. A month after receiving radiation therapy, the vaccine group were started receiving the injections and were given it for as long the treatment proves to have effect on them. The control group continued to receive the same treatments but without the vaccine.

EGFRvIII vaccine or peptide vaccine allowed the vaccine group to experience median survival time of 26 months, while those in the control group who did not receive the injections only survived 15 months. Average progression-free survival for the vaccine group was 14.2 months, while the other group only 6.3 months.

While EGFRvIII vaccine provided just an extended survival, future advent discoveries might provide cure. Night can be long, but when we see the dawn coming, we know the bright noon will follow. In the meantime, medical scientists also wear the nursing shoes to closely look into what needs to be done with glioblastoma patients.

Multiple Sclerosis Sufferers Got New FDA Approved Relapse Pill

Originally purposed as anti-rejection drug, fingolimod was approved by Food and Drug Administration as multiple sclerosis relapse pill. Named as Gilenya, this drug comes to be the first medication for slowing disability progression on multiple sclerosis sufferers, which can be taken as a daily pill.

At first, Novartis, the manufacturer of the drug, sought for MS cure FDA approval, just as what doctors and patients want. However, efforts to prove decreased brain lesions fell short. In the clinical trials, though, it became notable that relapse rates of those taking fingolimod decreased to almost half as compared to MS patients under widely used injectable beta-interferon therapy. Seeing the benefits of notable slow in relapses, the drug ended up as what it worked best.

Fingolimod or Gilenya works b reducing the circulation and the penetration into the brains of immune cells, which cause inflammatory damage to the brain cells as well as to the fatty sheaths protecting the connections between them. This means reduced risk of progressively disabling mobility and cognition problems caused by brain lesions due to episodes of inflammation.

Before taking the medication, multiple sclerosis patients need to know three of Gilenya’s serious side effects. If any of the following symptoms are experienced, call your trusted man in lab coats.

Gilenya can cause slow heart rate.
Symptoms include dizziness, tiredness, and slow or irregular heart beat. These can be experienced within the six hours after taking the first dose. In around one month, heart rate should go back to normal.

Gilenya can increase risk of infections.
Symptoms include fever, tiredness, body aches, chills, nausea and vomiting. The drug increases risk of infections because it lowers the number of lymphocytes or white blood cells in the blood, but will go back to normal within 2 months after stopping treatment.

Gilenya can cause blurred vision called macular edema.
Symptoms include blurriness or shadows in the center of the vision, blind spot in the center of the vision, sensitivity to lights, and unusually colored or tinted vision. These symptoms are similar to MS attack’s optic neuritis, and can surface after 3 to 4 months of starting with the medication. Diabetic people have higher risk.

Painless Vaccines Can Be Available in the Future

How will you be able to take your kid to a doctor for a shot? Say that the vaccine doesn’t really hurt, that it’s but psychological pain that others experience? Or take them by force? The debate may end if the patch based vaccine make further developments, and be proved effective on human subjects.

When vaccine like flu shot is needed, parents need not worry about kids wanting not to see doctors in lab coats or medical scrubs. A group or researchers were able to develop vaccine patch, which parents themselves can easily administer at home. There’s no need to literally drag your child to a hospital to get them vaccinated, and force them to face their fear of needle. The patch vaccine provides painless vaccination.

What is this patch vaccine? It’s basically a patch with 100 pieces of 0.65 mm long microscopic needles which penetrate the outer layer of the skin and dissolve upon contact. It does not need to penetrate deeply because there are immune cells present just below the surface of the skin, said co-author of the study Prof. Richard Compans of Emory University Medical School.

The group tested the new technological development on groups of mice. The microneedles, loaded with influenza vaccine, one group of mice was patched, while another group received the drug through traditional hypodermic needles. After which they were with flu virus. At the end of three months, the tests showed patched created a more effective immune response on mice.

This promising new technology will be further tested, and if it proves effective even on human, traditional hypodermic needles can become obsolete and totally eradicated. At times, wherein emergency vaccination is needed, patch vaccines can be a real big help in administering the drug. No need even for medical training in delivering vaccine at all.