Dr. Anthony D’Ambrosio
The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey has been added to the roster of more than 75 locations taking part in a new vaccine trial for the treatment of the deadly brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
New Jersey neurosurgeon, Dr. Anthony D’Ambrosio will be leading the trial at Valley as primary investigator. His colleague and fellow neurosurgeon, Dr. William S. Cobb will be on board as a co-investigator soon.
The phase II clinical trial is titled Vaccine Therapy With Bevacizumab Versus Bevacizumab Alone in Treating Patients With Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme That Can Be Removed by Surgery. The specific vaccine therapy under investigation here is Heat Shock Protein Peptide Complex-96 (HSPPC-96), and it is part of a broad new class of treatments called immunotherapy. This type of therapy taps into the body’s own immune system and has demonstrated benefit in the treatment of many other forms of cancer. Researchers are hopeful it will also help with hard-to-treat cases of glioblastoma.
“The standard treatment for high grade (malignant) primary tumors of the brain (including glioblastoma multiforme) includes surgery, followed by radiation and TEMODAR® chemotherapy,” says Dr. D’Ambrosio. “This combination of treatments helps patients live significantly longer, however, it has yet to result in a long term cure for patients. As a result, this type of research, broadly known as immunotherapy, is not only important, it’s critical for patients. Initial trial results with the heat shock protein peptide vaccine have been promising. We are hopeful that the addition of a patient-specific vaccine will someday prove extremely beneficial in our fight against this disease.”
Dr. William Cobb
Learn more about this clinical trial here.
Dr. Anthony D’Ambrosio specializes in the treatment of brain tumors, skull base tumors, meningiomas, acoustic neuromas, pituitary tumors, Chiari malformation, and microvascular decompression (MVD) for trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm. You can learn more about him on his bio page here.
Dr. William S. Cobb specializes in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Pituitary and Parasellar Tumors, Stereotactic Radiosurgery, and the Spine in general. You can learn more about him on his bio page here.
