Scientists at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recently found that patients who have been diagnosed with the fatal brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, and who were injected with a vaccine against it, developed tumor-fighting T-cells in their immune system. The nine patients in the initial study reported limited side effects. The findings have led to a larger, more intensive research project currently underway.

Gliomas are one of the most aggressive and deadliest forms of cancer because they typically hide from the immune system and grow unchecked. A dismal length of survival -- less than one year -- has marked this cancer, despite aggressive treatment that includes surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

In the study, researchers used a vaccine they created by combining glioma cells with dendritic cells taken from a patient''s blood. Dendritic cells play a role in the body?s immune response. The patients received three vaccinations at two-week intervals, which researchers said doubled the median survival rate to a minimum of 18 months. Four of the patients showed that their immune system had begun to fight the cancer cells, according to study findings. Similar trials using dendritic cell vaccines have been performed on four other cancers: lymphoma, melanoma, prostate cancer, and renal cell carcinoma.

The unique therapy was explained and highlighted on a recent episode of NBC''s ER as an option to treat the brain tumor of one of the show''s fictional characters, Dr. Mark Greene.

"This is an important first step," says Keith L. Black, MD, lead author of the study, who served as a consultant to the television show. "We have significant enthusiasm to try to develop an effective way of using the body''s own immune system against its own tumors.

"Obviously, we cannot offer a cure for these devastating cancers at this point, but the results of this early study are very encouraging," adds Black, who is also director of the institute at Cedars-Sinai. "We see evidence that we are moving in the right direction, and additional studies will be conducted to target the tumor cells even more effectively."

Black says the median length of survival for patients in the study grew to 455 days, compared with the 257 days of the control group. The control group was comprised of patients who were either treated for the cancer at Cedars-Sinai within two years before the vaccine was available or were being treated at the hospital during the study.

T.J. Koerner, PhD, scientific program director for the American Cancer Society, says the study''s findings are reassuring in that they support evidence that the immune system can be ignited to fight gliomas. But he cautions that the study is very limited -- and only involved nine patients.

"This is science in the pipeline," Koerner says. "It''s a very limited study, in its early stages of trials -- but it does hold the potential for human treatment. It shows what areas of the immune system are likely to hold promise in the fight against human cancers."