Stanford's Wong creates vaccine
Brain cancer patients expected to benefit after testing
By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer
People suffering from brain cancer could potentially live longer and more comfortably during treatment with the aid of a tumor-fighting vaccine developed by a Stanford professor.
Set to enter a third test phase in April, the vaccine has already more than doubled the 14-month life expectancy of 23 people with aggressive brain tumors, or glioblastoma. Twenty sites nationwide will test the vaccine on 90 patients starting in April. The Stanford School of Medicine is set to enroll nine of them.
Death is almost a given with the rapid type of tumors this vaccine is designed to treat, said Dr. Albert Wong, professor of neurosurgery at Stanford. Fifty percent survive the first year and roughly 10 percent survive the second year. Only 3 percent make it to five years.
Wong said brain tumor diagnosis comes out of the blue sometimes.
"Some people have headaches, some people faint, some people complain that they can't shoot hoops as well as they used to," Wong said. "It's really scary."
The vaccine centers around a cancer protein called EGFRvIII. Wong has managed to isolate the protein in a vaccine form, inject it and trick the body's immune system into thinking the protein is foreign. With that reaction under way, the body starts to fight the tumor by targeting the same protein in the cancer cells.
Wong compared it to the hair of the dog: taking a bit of what hurts you to make you feel better.
Once approved for everyday treatment, the vaccine would be used in tandem with other treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation. It's also a simple shot under the skin.
There is one requirement, however. The vaccine only fights cancers with the EGFRvIII protein, meaning, by very broad estimates, maybe half of cancer patients could use it.
"With some patients (the vaccine) might be all they need," Wong said. "And that's being very optimistic."
In 1992, Wong came across the DNA that pointed him toward the cancer protein. He next tested the vaccine on mice with brain tumors, which eventually disappeared. The vaccine has gone through two human tests at Duke University and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Wong said some people are still living after three years.
The cancer protein exists in ovarian, colon, breast and a host of other cancers, and has the potential to treat them all in a vaccine form, Wong said.
Celldex, a New Jersey-based company, bought the rights to the vaccine in 2005 and is sponsoring the next testing phase.
If the Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccine, Celldex could be on the market with it by 2011, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Anthony Marucci said.
"We haven't hit the median survival rate yet," Marucci said. "We're going to put it into additional cancers, either ovarian, or head and neck, later this year."
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