ACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A vaccine that has significantly increased life expectancy in early tests of patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - the most common, most aggressive form of brain cancer in adults - is now being offered through a clinical trial at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.The vaccine represents a fresh and fairly simple approach to treating this cancer, says neurosurgeon Kent New, M.D., Ph.D., who will be leading the study at Mayo. About 40% of these tumors display a particular protein on their surface and the vaccine is designed to trick the patient’s immune system into thinking the protein is “foreign” in order to mount a killing response.
