According to researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a new vaccine, added to standard therapy, will help increase survival rates for people with the deadliest type of brain cancer.

The researchers conducted a small study in which 35 patients with glioblastoma (GBM) a severe type of brain cancer, were divided into two groups. One group received injections of the new vaccine called CDX-110 by Celldex Therapeutics and PF-04948568 by Pfizer. Both groups underwent surgery, radiation treatments and were given the chemotherapy drug temozolomide as well.

The survival time for the group receiving the vaccine was 26 months, and for the other group, 15 months. The vaccine stimulated an immune response in half the patients that it was given to, suggesting this was responsible for increasing survival time. It also removed a growth factor, an aggressive gene called EGFRvIII, associated with the cancer. The vaccine removed the gene in all but one patient involved in the study.

10,000 cases of GBM develop in the United States every year. The new vaccine gives hope to patients and will provide an immense research platform to scientists.