There is good news in the cancer world — on Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported about one of the “first cancer vaccines to show a survival benefit.”
Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. is a company that works to create drug therapies that will target cancer. It operates on the “fundamental scientific belief that harnessing the power of the immune system would break significant barriers in drug development.” In other words, it creates drugs that work with the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells, and recently it found success.
David Reardon, the clinical director of neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute right here in Boston, presented data on a clinical trial that has been in the works for two years, called the ReACT study. According to the study, the drug has already been tested on a small group and is now being given to a larger group, focusing on cancer patients with glioblastoma — an extremely aggressive type of brain cancer. Usually a diagnosis of this particular type of cancer is a death sentence. Reardon and his team worked on a vaccine to change this. They created Ritenga, a drug that targets a specific kind of glioblastoma.
To test out the drug, the team did a randomized, double-blind study. This essentially means that they asked every patient diagnosed with this type of cancer, around the time they started the study, if they’d be willing to maybe test out a brand new, untested drug, or maybe get a saline injection instead. Seventy-three people said yes. These 73 patients endured two years of constant trips to doctors’ offices, various side treatments such as steroids and other drugs and an unwavering uncertainty as to whether or not the injection they sometimes received was going to help them survive.
The study shows great success. Nine out of 10 patients who received the drug are still alive, compared to the five out of 10 who did not receive the drug. Ten out of 36 patients who received the drug didn’t bring home bad news to their families for six months, compared to only six out of 37 who did not receive the drug. At two years, 25 percent of patients who received the drug still appeared in family photos, compared to 0 percent who did not receive the drug.
Reardon reported that “the results of the ReACT study change the way we think about glioblastoma — offering patients and their families new hope in the face of one of the most difficult-to-treat cancers.” John Sampson, chief of neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center and the study’s co-principal investigator, told The Wall Street Journal, “once patients are surviving long term, they don’t die … this is the kind of thing we look for with immunotherapy.” Phase three of the study is completely enrolled, with 745 patients waiting to receive treatment.
Although the news of this study’s success is interesting and exciting, you probably have heard nothing about it. Most media has focused on the business side of the story. According to Bloomberg, Celldex shares jumped 17 percent the day the study was published. Another article, from a site called The Motley Fool, is titled, “Why Celldex Therapeutics Shares Jumped Today.”
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that the little media attention given to this was focused on the monetary side of the study, but it is interesting. If you can think about it from a more human perspective — past the scientific jargon, past the doctors standing up at podiums in expensive suits and past the financial gains for this company — it’s pretty amazing. It’s amazing that a few more people could go home to their families after a doctor appointment with some good news. Even though this study marks a little progress, even though cancer isn’t cured, it’s a reason to feel good today.
