SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- An experimental gene therapy drug doubled the survival rate for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer that kills two-thirds of patients within five years, researchers reported at a cancer conference.
Typically, glioblastoma patients whose cancer comes back are expected to survive for weeks or months. Researchers reported the results of a Phase 2 clinical trial at the European Cancer Congress 2015 as Phase 3 of the trial begins.
The drug, VB-111, works by blocking the cancer's ability to grow new blood vessels. A substance secreted by tumors activates the drug.
"This drug outsmarts the cancer," said Dr. Andrew Brenner, a researcher in the Cancer Therapy and Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, in a press release. "These numbers compare favorably to any current benchmark in recurrent glioblastoma and may change the treatment paradigm for these patients."
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Researchers recruited 46 patients with recurrent glioblastoma for the multicenter study. All 46 patients received VB-111 at the outset of the trial. When their cancer progressed, the researchers treated 23 with VB-111 and the standard chemotherapy treatment Avastin, while 22 received Avastin alone.
Patients who received VB-111 continuously survived an average of 15 months, compared with patients treated only with Avastin surviving for about 8 months. The researchers noted that VB-111 also induced an immune system response, as 25 of the patients who received the drug developed a fever. Feverish patients saw an increased survival rate of about 16 months, compared to those without a fever who survived about 8.5 months.
"The data from this multicenter study shows that VB-111 almost doubles the historical median overall survival for rGBM, with clear strengthening of the statistical significance along time, as the data further matured," said Dr. Yael Cohen, vice president for clinical development at VBL Therapeutics, in a press release.
