A promising treatment we are now investigating in clinical trials is a vaccine that boosts a patient’s immune system to target and then attack cancerous cells that make up a devastating type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme [GBM]. The trial is called ACT III, and we are testing the safety and anticancer activity of adding a vaccine called CDX-110 to maintenance chemotherapy that is given after the patient has undergone surgery to remove the GBM tumor, radiation therapy, and concurrent chemotherapy. CDX-110 has already been shown to delay the progression of cancer and increase overall patient survival by 50 percent in phase II trials. We are now testing CDX-110 in phase II/III trials in a greater number of patients in cancer centers across the United States. This is a very exciting development in the treatment of GBM because we haven’t had a major breakthrough in the treatment of this type of brain cancer until CDX-110.

Regarding the treatment of other types of benign and malignant brain tumors at the John Theurer Cancer Center, options include image-guided neurosurgery using the Stealth Neuronavigation System, stereotactic radiosurgery, and brachytherapy, which places radioactive seeds or balloon catheters directly into the tumor to destroy it.