Senior researcher Dr. Waldemar Debinski said glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, a type of brain tumor has a dismal prognosis, but the research team is working on the third drug -- two of the drug candidates have been developed -- and the cocktail could be tested in patients within five years.

The treatment is based on the "molecular signature" of GBM tumors. Three different proteins are found in high levels individually in these cancers.

The study, reported in Clinical Cancer Research, examined 76 specimens of brain tumor, including 46 GBMs, and nine normal brain samples, to determine how frequently the markers appeared together.

All three markers was significantly higher in GBM tissue compared to normal brain and to brain tumors that aren't as aggressive as GBM, but all GBM tumors had at least one of the markers present and 95 percent of tumors had at least two.