Personalized Cancer Vaccine Candidate Targets Aggressive Brain Tumors

To combat one of the most lethal forms of pediatric brain cancer, UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers are launching a first-of-its-kind clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a cancer vaccine candidate targeting H3 G34-mutant diffuse hemispheric glioma.

This highly aggressive brain tumor is typically found in adolescents and young adults.

A particular mutation of the H3-3A gene primarily characterizes this type of brain tumor. This mutation leads to significant disruptions in RNA processing, with wide-ranging influences on cancer behavior and response to treatment.

The vaccine candidate developed at UCLA targets these tumor genetic mutations. UCLA Health is the only center investigating immunotherapy for this type of glioma. 

“Despite aggressive treatments, this type of brain tumor evades current therapies with shocking efficiency,” said Dr. Anthony Wang, director of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Program at UCLA Health and the principal investigator of the trial, in a press release on August 5, 2024.

“These cancers show a host of escape pathways, allowing small populations of cells to survive initial treatment and to adapt. The data from our pre-clinical studies makes us hopeful that an active, targeted cancer vaccine will be able to adapt with the tumor to eliminate cancer cells more effectively.”

The vaccine works by arming a patient’s dendritic cells, the most efficient activator of the body’s immune system, to target products of the altered RNA regulation that defines this cancer type.

Once activated against these targets, the patient’s dendritic cells are injected back into the patient. 

Dendritic cell vaccination has already shown promise in treating some other forms of cancer, including glioblastoma, adding years of life for a subset of patients with a disease that often only has a lifespan of months.