Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): Dr. Bart Neyns and Dr. Johnny Duerinck from UZ Brussel tested ipilimumab and nivolumab in 11 brain tumor patients, achieving 27.3% two-year survival and 18.2% three-year survival rates.
A research team from UZ Brussel, led by Dr. Bart Neyns and Dr. Johnny Duerinck, is trying a new way to treat brain tumors that come back. They are using two drugs, ipilimumab and nivolumab, and giving them directly into the brain during surgery. It has been said that this is important because it helps the drugs work better by getting around the blood-brain barrier, which usually stops treatments from reaching brain tumors. These drugs help the immune system find and attack cancer cells more effectively.
What are the results of using Myeloid Dendritic cells for brain tumors?
The researchers are using the patient’s immune cells, called myeloid dendritic cells, and putting them directly into the brain along with the drugs. These cells help the immune system learn to find and attack cancer. By combining the drugs with these cells during surgery, they hope to make the immune system work better against the tumor and lower the chances of it coming back. This research is still new, but it could be a big step forward in treating brain tumors, especially for patients whose tumors have returned after other treatments.
It has been said that in a study of the first 11 patients treated for brain tumors, 3 of them lived for 2 years without cancer coming back, which is about 27.3%. 2 patients, or around 18.2%, were still cancer-free after 3 years, showing that some patients are doing well for a longer time. These numbers suggest that the treatment might work well over time, but still, not many patients are surviving long-term. The survival rate improved a lot in the first year initially, 36% of patients lived for at least one year after treatment, but that number increased to 60%. This big change indicates that the treatment might be more effective or that other factors helped patients live longer in that first year.
According to resources, The new treatment is helping patients with brain tumors that come back. Prof. Dr. Neyns explains that when they inject special cells with immune-boosting stuff, it can make tumors disappear in some melanoma patients who have run out of other options. The results are good because survival rates are much better than with older treatments, which only help less than 10% of patients. Neyns says these results are surprising and not just luck, and the treatment doesn’t have new safety risks. The scientists hope to get funding to keep studying this treatment.
