Summit's Overlook Medical Center Selected As Trial Site For Brain Tumor Vaccine

SUMMIT, NJ — Overlook Medical Center in Summit has been selected as a trial site for a groundbreaking new brain tumor vaccine, according to the Atlantic Health System.

Overlook is one of the first three hospitals in the country, and the only one in New Jersey, that was selected for this clinical trial. The new vaccine, SurVaxM, targets the protein that keeps cancer cells alive in brain tumors.

The "SURVIVE" Phase 2B trial, sponsored by MimiVax LLC, will allow doctors at Overlook to treat patients with newly diagnosed glioblastomas, or malignant tumors affecting the brain. The new vaccine targets survivin, a cell-survival protein found in 95 percent of glioblastomas and many other cancers.

According to Atlantic Health, the neuro-oncology experts at Overlook are hoping the vaccine will be the key to giving patients a better shot at long-term survival from brain cancer, as well as improved function.

Neuro-oncologist Robert Aiken, MD, is the lead researcher for the trial at Overlook and the co-director of Overlook's Gerald J. Glasser Brain Tumor Center. He said, if effective, this vaccine would mean the world to patients with glioblastoma, a debilitating condition with an average survivability of about 16 months.

“I think it represents the possibility of a true advance for this uniformly fatal disorder,” Aiken said. “The prospect of surviving for more years, while maintaining function would be an incredible gift for patients.”

SurVaxM is engineered to recognize survivin-expressing cancer cells at foreign and stimulate the patient's own immune response to control tumor growth and recurrence.

Patients can receive the vaccine once they complete the typical post-surgical treatment of radiation and chemotherapy, which usually lasts about six to eight weeks after surgery to remove the tumor. The vaccine is given every two weeks over a six-week period and then every two months over a 24-month period, from the first injection.

Besides preventing diseases, vaccines can be used in a therapeutic way as an "immunostimulant" to treat cancer, for example. SurVaxM is administered through a skin injection.

Overlook Medical Center, according to Atlantic Health, has long been at the forefront of using vaccines to treat brain tumors.

Aiken said he is encouraged by early data from SurVaxM’s Phase I trial and noted how this vaccine targets survivin.

“It is a directed therapy to the tumor. This is an ideal target,” Aiken said.

Aiken is board-certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and in neuro-oncology by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties.

A Phase 1 study of SuVaxM demonstrated safety and tolerability in patients with recurrent or progressive malignant glioma, as well as a Phase 2a study of newly diagnosed glioblastoma. That led the way for MimiVax to obtain authorization from the FDA to begin its Phase 2b stage.

For more information on this clinical trial, visit Atlantic Health's website.

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