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Heather Mayer, DOTmed News Reporter | May 13, 2010
But when it comes to the patient, this vaccine would be covered by insurance.
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Due to FDA policy, clinical testing for drug treatments can focus on only one disease at a time. In the case of DCVax, it is only being tested on brain cancer, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work on other cancers, explained Powers.
"It should work on any type of cancer," she said. "We're just restoring the natural function of the immune system."
The patients in the Northwest Biotherapeutics trials all had Grade 4 tumors, with a few Grade 3 exceptions like the reappearance of Gibbs' condition. If approved for commercial sale, DCVax would only be for Grade 4 tumors, explained Liau.
"It's up to the FDA, what they feel is safe," she said. "Scientifically there is not a huge reason to think it wouldn't also be applicable [to lower-grade tumors]."
A successful personalized cancer vaccine blows the door wide open for personalized medicine and immune therapies, said Liau.
"If we're able to show efficacy, I think it really does help to transition the concept of personal medicine into reality," she said. "One reason we don't have a cure for cancer yet is because not every cancer is the same. There's not going to be one drug for all types of brain cancer."
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