World-first experimental cancer treatment paves way for clinical trial

Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive and lethal brain cancer with an average survival time of 12 to 18 months. Only 25% of patients survive more than one year and less than 5% survive more than 3 years. The new publication shares the experimental treatment given to a patient diagnosed with glioblastoma. Prof Long used her expertise in immunotherapy and drew on melanoma science to devise, lead and administer the treatment. It is the first documented use of neoadjuvant triple immunotherapy in glioblastoma, involving a combination of three checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies (drugs that activate the immune system, instructing T-cells to kill tumour cells) administered prior to surgery. The paper details that, when surgically removed, the tumour treated with immunotherapy showed increased diversity, abundance and activation of immune cells, compared to the tumour prior to receiving immunotherapy. These immune cells may recognise and attack cancer cells: their increased presence may suggest a strong immune response. At the time of final submission of the journal paper, the patient had no clear signs of cancer recurrence after more than 18 months. “My hypothesis was that we could administer combination immunotherapy as first line treatment before surgery to boost the immune system and activate T-cells to target the brain tumour – an approach I had previously developed successfully in both stage 3 melanoma and melanoma that had spread to the brain,” said lead author, Prof Long. “This has never been done before and what this trial will do is establish whether this approach is feasible or effective for the treatment of glioblastoma.”