Vaccine measured for Deadly Brain Cancer

Adding up a new vaccine to standard therapy extensive survival for people with the most deadly type of brain cancer. The patients were divided into two groups: Both received surgery, radiation and the chemotherapy drug temozolomide, but one group of 18 patients also began receiving injections of the new vaccine one month after completing radiation and continued to receive the vaccine as long as it appeared to be effective.

Median survival time for those in the vaccine group was 26 months, compared with 15 months for the control group. Progression-free survival was 14.2 months in the vaccine group, compared to 6.3 months in the control group. The vaccine appeared to stimulate an immune response in approximately half of the patients who received it, suggesting such responses were linked to increased survival time, but the numbers are so small that we cannot conclude this with any degree of certainty.

The vaccine knocks out a growth factor associated with the most aggressive form of the brain cancer. The presence of EGFRvIII allows cancer cells to multiply out of control, seeding new tumors throughout the brain, the researchers explained. Even with advances in chemotherapy and radiation, prognosis for patients with glioblastoma is poor, with an average survival time of one year after diagnosis.

Cancer Survivors May Be at Risk for Memory Problems

Memory problems are common among people who have a history of cancer, new research reveals. In fact, cancer survivors are 40 percent more likely than those who haven't had cancer to experience the kind of memory impairment -- called "cancer-related cognitive dysfunction" -- that compromises their ability to function on a daily basis, the study authors reported.
"One of the most important parts of cancer treatment is management of symptoms, such as impairments in attention, memory and fatigue, in order to improve a patient's quality of life," Pascal Jean-Pierre, an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.
To assess a possible memory-cancer connection, the study authors analyzed data taken from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fourteen percent of the cancer survivors said they experienced difficulties with memory or periods of confusion, compared with just 8 percent of those who never had a cancer diagnosis.
"These memory issues can be related to treatment, such as chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapies," he said, "or to the tumor biology itself, which could change brain chemistry and neurobehavioral function."