UCLA Health has announced the launch of a clinical trial to tackle aggressive brain tumours in adolescents and young adults using a personalised cancer vaccine.
Researchers from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, supported by the Department of Defence, will evaluate the safety of a personalised cancer vaccine in young patients living with diffuse hemispheric glioma (DHG), a serious form of paediatric brain cancer.
According to the National Institutes of Health, primary brain tumours are estimated to be responsible for 80,000 new cases every year in the US.
In the study, the cancer vaccine being developed at the UCLA Human Gene and Cell Therapy Facility will be evaluated to target H3 G34-mutant DHG, a highly aggressive brain tumour that is commonly found in adolescents and young adults and is primarily characterised by a particular mutation of the H3-3A gene, beginning with patients aged 18 years and over.
The H3-3A gene encodes an important regulatory component on histone H3, that influences RNA processing, cancer behaviour and response to treatment.
Aiming to improve survival rates and provide new insights into how the immune system responds to primary brain cancers and whether these targets lead to a lasting anti-tumour immune response, the vaccine is designed to arm a patient’s dendritic cells, an activator in the body’s immune system, to target products of the altered RNA regulation that defines this cancer type. Once activated, the patient’s dendritic cells are injected back into them.
Designed to stimulate the immune system to attack the cancer, dendritic cell vaccination has previously shown promise in treating other forms of cancer, including glioblastoma, extending years of life for a subset of patients with the disease.
Dr Linda Liau, chair of neurosurgery, UCLA Health, commented: “This clinical trial represents a novel and potentially transformative approach to treating high-grade gliomas in children and young adults.
“We are optimistic that this research could lead to more advanced studies and eventually a new standard of care for this challenging subtype of brain cancer.”
The study will later be expanded to include patients as young as five years old who have a confirmed diagnosis of H3 G34-mutant DHG.