Background and purpose: The aim of the study was to estimate the usefulness of the antineoplastic vaccination in treatment of malignant brain tumors. According to medical knowledge there is no cure for this kind of tumors.
Material and methods: Between 2001 and 2005, ten patients suffering from malignant glial tumors were treated. There were 5 male and 5 female individuals, aged from 17 to 76 (mean age: 40.8 years). The histopathological examination showed 4 cases of glioblastoma and 6 cases of anaplastic astrocytoma. Initially, patients were operated on with dissection of 1 cm(3) of the most representative part of tumor. The neoplasm cells were cultured, transfected with episomal pMT EP vector (expressing alternatively oligonucleotide sequence forming triple helix with IGF-I gene or antisense against IGF-1 mRNA), re-cultured, irradiated and resuspended in medium to prepare antineoplastic vaccine. The patients were vaccinated subcutaneously. We examined peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets to assess the immunological response of the patients.
Results: We observed prolongation of the survival time to 21.7 months compared to 9-11 months observed in literature. The patients were additionally treated oncologically with radiotherapy and chemotherapy (temozolomide) according to the reasonable indications. Therefore, the comprehensive assessment of the genotherapy as the supplemental monotherapy was impossible.
Conclusions: The method of treatment used in this study prolongs the survival time of patients with high-grade gliomas of the central nervous system. This gene therapy needs further investigations as a method of oncological monotherapy of brain malignant gliomas.