The University of Navarra Hospital has launched a series of clinical trials in order to assess the efficacy of an immunotherapy(免疫疗法) treatment. This approach involves the application of personalised vaccines1 —produced from healthy and tumour2 cells from the patient him or herself— and designed to combat glioblastomas(胶质母细胞瘤), one of the most aggressive and frequent malignant3 tumours4(恶性肿瘤). The new therapy is administered to participating patients combined with the standard, first-line treatment involving surgical5(外科的) extirpation6(消减,根除) of the tumour followed by radiotherapy(放射疗法) and chemotherapy treatment with temozolomide(莫唑胺). The Hospital is currently the only centre in Spain undertaking7 a study of this nature, and for which it has recently received authorisation(授权,委任) from the Medication Agency of the Spanish Health Ministry8. It is planned to involve a sample of 37 patients for the research. The trials have been devised and developed by the Neuro-oncology and Cell Therapy Areas of the University of Navarra Hospital, in collaboration9 with(合作,协同) the Centre for Applied10 Medical Research (CIMA) through the Scientific and Technological11 Institute (ICT) of the same university. The investigation12 has received funding from FIS (Health Research Fund) announcement by the Ministry of Health for financing the development of non-commercial pharmaceutical13 drugs.
In essence(大体上,本质上), the production of the personalised vaccines is carried out at the University of Navarra Hospital's Cell Therapy Good Manufacturing Practices Laboratory, where tumour proteins are processed and then combined with immune system cells obtained from the patient's blood, which are taught how to organise14 an immune response to the tumour. These prepared items are frozen and then administered to the patient as vaccines over the following months, in combination with(与……结合) conventional therapy.
It should be recalled that an immunotherapy treatment with similar characteristics was developed over two years ago by a research team at CIMA and the University of Navarra Hospital. In that case, the procedure was based on the production and administration of idiotype(个体基因型) vaccines and personalised for patients with first relapse follicular lymphoma(滤泡性淋巴瘤). The trials demonstrated clinical efficacy on managing to change the progress of the illness.