Brain tumors are difficult to treat. Because even tumors that can be operated on can rarely be removed completely through surgery. Patients typically receive chemotherapy and radiation therapy but even so, people with aggressive tumors often live no more than five years after diagnosis.
In a study by researchers at the German Cancer Research Center, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University Hospital and other research institutions, 33 patients also received a vaccine.
Eight years later, the research team published the long-term follow-up results in the journal Nature. And there is reason for cautious optimism: 66% of the people who took part in the study were still alive after eight years. In 42% of participants, the tumor had not grown back during that time.
One of the study's lead authors, Michael Platten, director of the department of neurology at University Medical Center Mannheim and head of a research division at the German Cancer Research Center, said he was particularly surprised that the tumors had not returned in such a large share of patients over such a long period.
A vaccine against brain tumors does not prevent cancer
