Dr. Anthony D’Ambrosio
The Valley Hospital is now offering patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) (brain tumor) the opportunity to take part in a clinical trial that uses a vaccine produced from patients’ own tissue. Researchers hope to learn if the vaccine can improve the outcome for patients in the fight against this aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer.
The Phase Two trial, headed by principal investigator and researcher Anthony D’Ambrosio, M.D., Director of Valley’s Neuro-Oncology Disease Management Team, is designed to evaluate safety, survival, and immune response in patients treated with a heat shock protein peptide-complex vaccine (HSPPC-96) derived from each patient’s specific tumor cells. Vaccines are substances that provoke the body’s disease-fighting responses and when they are injected into the patient, they may cause the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells. HSPPC-96, which is manufactured and supplied by Agenus Inc., is the investigational agent in this study.
“Heat shock proteins are believed to play an essential role in helping the immune system to recognize and eradicate diseased cells,” says Dr. D’Ambrosio.
The Glioblastoma Vaccine study is sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco, and is currently available in limited locations across the country. The Valley Hospital is currently the only hospital in New Jersey to offer patients the chance to participate in and potentially benefit from this investigational treatment. Because tumor tissue is a necessary prerequisite of the treatment, the trial is available only to newly diagnosed patients over age 18 whose tumors have not been excised.
The Valley Hospital is currently accepting participants for the Glioblastoma Vaccine trial. For more information and eligibility criteria pertaining to this study, call The Valley Hospital Department of Oncology Clinical Trials at 201-634-5792 or go to www.clinicaltrials.gov.
