Grant awarded to researchers to develop immune-based therapies for deadly brain tumors

The PHASE ONE Foundation has awarded a $400,000 grant to top researchers from the UCLA Brain Tumor Center and UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center to support their research into developing immunotherapies for glioblastoma, an aggressive and fast-growing type of brain tumor.

The grant, which is led by Dr. Linda Liau, chair of the neurosurgery department at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, a professor of neuro-oncology at the medical school, helps fill a need for innovative approaches to better treat people who have glioblastoma.

The average lifespan for someone with this type of tumor is often measured in months and less than 5% of people with glioblastoma live longer than five years. There are limited treatment options and there is a high probability that the tumor will come back after initial treatment. Currently, there is no standard therapy for recurrent glioblastoma.

The funding will help open a clinical trial testing a combination treatment strategy using checkpoint inhibitors in conjunction with a personalized dendritic cell vaccine, which was developed by Liau at UCLA. The team hopes by combining the two treatments they will be able to create a new way to treat people with brain cancer, as well as develop new ways to track the immune response.