Dive Brief:
- New data from a mid-stage trial on Celldex Therapeutics’ brain cancer vaccine, Rintega (rindopepimut), demonstrates that combining it with Avastin improves patients’ chances of survival significantly. Produced by Roche, Avastin is the standard of care for glioblastoma multiforme.
- Rintega is another form of oncologic immunotherapy.
- According to the American Brain Tumor Association, the two-year survival rate for glioblastoma is 30%, while the five-year survival rate drops to 10%.
Dive Insight:
Recurrent glioblastoma is not only aggressive and difficult to treat, but also viewed by many as an automatic death sentence. However, the advent of various types of immunotherapy are changing the treatment paradigm for cancer. This Celldex vaccine is a perfect example.
In a study involving 73 patients with advanced glioblastoma, 25% of patients given Rintega in addition to Avastin were alive after two years, compared with zero of the patients in the group who were not treated with Rintega.
The study's lead investigator, Dr. David Reardon, called the results of this study “unprecedented.” Reardon is based at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in New York City.
Rintega, which has been granted breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA, met its main goal of showing that Rintega-treated patients experienced at least six months of progression-free survival.