For recurrent glioblastoma, immunotherapy before surgery appears to help more than afterward

A UCLA-led study suggests that for people with recurrent glioblastoma, administering an immunotherapy drug before surgery is more effective than using the drug afterward.In recent years, immunotherapy drugs, which harness the body ’s immune system to destroy cancer cells, have been shown to be helpful in treating people with advanced or metastatic cancer. But the drugs have yet to show any benefit in helping people with glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer. On average, most people with recurrent gliob lastoma live for just six to nine months.The study, published today in Nature Medicine, was co-led by Robert Prins, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, a professor of neuro-oncology at the Geffen School of Medicine. Both are scientists at theUCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. It shows for the first time that pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor drug that is marketed under the brand name Keytruda, can be effective in treating people with recurrent glioblastoma.In the study, people treated with the drug prior to surgery lived nearly twice as long after surgery as the average life expectancy for people with the disease.Pembrolizumab is an antibody thatworks by blocking a checkpoint protein called PD-1, which stops T cells from attacking cancer cells. Cancer cells often use PD-1 to keep T cells at bay. But inhibiting the engagement of the protein with a che...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news