its medicine helped patients with brain tumors live longer. Eleven of 12 patients with relapsed brain cancer who took Antigenics' Oncophage in a small clinical trial were still alive after 6.5 months, when they were expected to die, the New York- based company said in a statement. The results are being presented today at a scientific meeting in San Francisco.
Patients may live longer because the therapy stimulated the immune systems of all patients to combat tumors, much as a vaccine triggers the body to fight a virus, researchers said. If the finding is confirmed in a larger study, Oncophage could offer a new option for people with terminal brain cancer. Each year, about 13,000 people in the U.S. die from brain tumors, according to the American Cancer Society.
