The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center has started phase 2 clinical trials, targeting glioblastoma patients.
Glioblastoma is a particularly aggressive type of brain cancer. Only about one fifth of adults diagnosed with it survive two years or more after their diagnosis, UNM researchers said.
“Unfortunately, it is also the most common form of primary brain tumor, about 70 percent of newly diagnosed primary brain tumors,” Omar Chohan, director of Neurosurgical Oncology and a part of the clinical trials team said.
A new two-drug combination, currently in use in the clinical trials, might help people diagnosed with glioblastoma to fight the disease, according to a UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center press release.
In a presentation of early clinical trial data to the 20th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology, physician scientists from the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center reported that a large number of study participants responded well to the drug combination in the phase 1 trial.
The overall survival of newly diagnosed Glioblastoma patients is just over a year, with the best treatment available, Chohan said. “If you don’t do anything, most of the patients will die within three months of the diagnosis.”
The current state-of-the-art treatment for Glioblastoma involves surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, he said.
“Lots of studies have been done to sort of figure out treatment without these [traditional methods of treatments]," Chohan said. "We have essentially made great progress in animal models: in the mice, in the lab. But none of those could be translated into a human scenario.”
Scientists participating in these clinical trials are using a molecule to target Glioblastoma in humans, he said.
“One of the tricks all the tumors, especially Glioblastoma, does is that it makes certain compounds that will suppress the immune system," Chohan said. "Our immune system is not only designed to fight infections but also tumors naturally. Tumors grow by different mechanisms. One of the trick is to inhibit the immune system."
The researchers are using a combination of drugs to disrupt the cellular process cancer cells use to hide from the immune system and allow the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer, according to a UNM press release.
Olivier Rixe, associate director for Clinical Research at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, who serves as a National Principal Investigator for these clinical trials, said the researchers reported positive results for the phase 1 trials.
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“The results were very promising. There were a certain number of patients who responded positively,” he said. "The scientists looked at safety of the drugs they are using to treat the tumor and found no side-effects of the treatment."
“During the phase 1 clinical trials, some patients noted outstanding responses to this treatment," Rixie said. "One of the patients is alive two years after the treatment in phase 1 and almost no tumor in the MRI. We are extremely enthusiastic."
He hopes that the study will expand quickly, he said. “We are going to enroll 100 patients from across the U.S. for the phase 2 study. We are collaborating with researchers from three other states as well."
People from other countries were also interested in the trials, Rixie said. “I got a call from a patient in Germany who wanted to enroll for the study."
Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @mianfawadshah.
