Diffuseastrocytic tumors are brain tumors occurring in adults and children. The grade
IV tumor, called Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most frequent brain tumor
in adults with an incidence of 3 to 4 per 100000 adults per year. In spite of
standard multimodal treatment, consisting of neurosurgery, radiotherapy and
chemotherapy, the prognosis is poor with a median Overall Survival (OS) of only
15 months. At time of relapse the Progression-Free Survival (PFS) is 6 months,
and the median PFS and OS have not improved over the last decade. In spite of
being an orphan disease, GBMs cause the highest number of years of life lost
due to cancer.
Amongstother innovative approaches like anti-angiogenesis and targeted therapy,
immunotherapy has been developed as an innovative approach to control GBM.
Active specific immunotherapy is based on the injection of autologous mature
dendritic cells loaded with tumor antigens derived from different sources.
Numerous clinical studies and reviews have been published on the role of
immunotherapy for patients with GBM. All point to feasibility of the technology
without major side effects. Recently a large phase III clinical trial
integrating DC vaccination during first line treatment, or in cross-over at
time of disease progression, demonstrated improved long-term overall survival.
Moreover, meta-analyses pointed out the significant effect of active specific
immunotherapy on OS compared to intra-institutional historical control patients.
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