DC Vax-L is the first breakthrough in almost twenty years for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, the commonest and most aggressive primary brain tumour.

Sometimes abbreviated to GBM, these tumours affect roughly two and a half thousand individuals in the UK annually.

Standard treatment for those fit enough is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.

Despite this, average life expectancy following diagnosis is only twelve to eighteen months, and often much less.

In a trial lasting eight years, spanning ninety countries and involving 331 patients, DC Vax-L, also referred to as DC Vax, has been shown to work in those with a new GBM as well as disease which had returned after treatment.

In those with freshly-diagnosed GBM, survival was 19.3 months against 16.5 for those not receiving DV Vax.

For patients with recurrent disease, those treated survived on average 13.2 months versus 7.8 months in participants receiving a placebo or 'dummy drug'.

All patients had undergone surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, prior to admission into the trial.

The UK arm of the trial has been led by Professor Keyoumars Ashkan; a London based neurosurgeon.

While these figures may not seem staggering, thirteen percent of patients given DC Vax survived five years, against less than six percent not receiving the treatment.

One of the longest-living participants is Nigel French, from Kent, who is alive and well and still in remission seven years after receiving DC Vax.

DC Vax works by combining tumour cells and the patient’s own white blood cells in the laboratory.

White blood cells are part of the immune system.

The combination is then injected back into the patient’s blood stream. The white blood cells not only recognise the tumour cells as foreign and harmful, but also stimulate other parts of the immune system to attack and destroy them.

This is a first for brain tumours and the most significant breakthrough for GBM since the invention of the chemotherapy agent temozolomide in 2005.

Brain tumours can be divided into primary and secondary. Secondaries are those where cancer cells have spread from another primary cancer, for example in the lung.

Primary brain cancers are the leading cause of cancer related deaths in those under forty.

Every year there are twelve thousand new diagnoses in the UK, of which around two and a half thousand are GBMs.

Survival is less than twenty five percent at twelve months, this figure dropping to under ten percent at five years. Yet leading brain tumour charities advise than less than two percent of the £700 million yearly UK cancer research budget is spent on brain tumours. Of this under one percent goes into research about GBMs.

As a result, survival figures have not noticeably improved in over forty years.

Making this worse, no two GBMs behave in the same manner.

Brain tumours affect all age groups, from babies upward. Even the thought strikes fear into the heart of many so it is vital to recognise symptoms and signs at an early stage.

While headaches are one of the most common symptoms of a brain tumour, most headaches are thankfully not due to a brain tumour.

However, if you routinely suffer headaches and the character of them changes, this should not be ignored. Headaches that routinely wake you from sleep are a red flag.

Persistent nausea and vomiting, especially if not accompanied by the typical symptoms of a viral infection or gastroenteritis may be due to increased pressure in the skull, caused by a brain tumour.

Regular sight tests, while not only vital for maintaining good eye health, may be able to pick up a brain tumour before any symptoms develop.

The nature of any symptoms will be determined by the location of any mass in the brain, as well as its size.

The websites for The Brain Tumour Charity www.thebraintumourcharity.org and Headsmart, www.headsmart.org.uk are excellent resources for anyone with concern.

While this may seem very frightening, it must be remembered that brain tumours are rare. However, as with any cancer, early recognition and diagnosis improves outcome and does save lives.

Dr. Zak Uddin, General Practitioner

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