Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is widely regarded as the "king of cancers"—a relentless and deadly adversary of the central nervous system. In China, the annual incidence is approximately 5–8 per 100,000 people, accounting for more than half of all malignant brain tumors. The disease is characterized by rapid growth, extreme malignancy, and exceptionally low survival rates: even with standard-of-care treatment, the 5-year survival rate remains below 10% (China Glioma Cooperative Group, 2023 data).

Current Standard Therapies Face Significant Limitations

• Surgery: Although assisted by neuronavigation and fluorescence guidance, with maximum safe resection rates exceeding 70%, tumors in anatomically challenging locations or with dense adhesions are often difficult to completely remove.
• Radiotherapy: Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) can protect critical brain regions, but carries risks of collateral damage and has limited efficacy in tumors that are radioresistant.
• Chemotherapy: The standard agent, temozolomide, faces intrinsic resistance in 50% of patients, and is associated with significant side effects.

Emerging Therapeutic Approaches Offer New Hope

• Tumor-Treating Fields (TTF): A portable device that generates electric fields to disrupt cancer cell division, with a favorable side-effect profile.
• Targeted Therapy: Agents targeting specific drivers such as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and BRAF have shown efficacy in biomarker-selected patient subsets.
• Immunotherapy: Approaches that activate the patient's own immune system against tumors, though efficacy is variable and carries risks of immune-related adverse events.
• Messenger RNA (mRNA) Vaccines (Frontier Approach): These vaccines use mRNA encoding tumor antigens to induce specific immunity. The successful clinical deployment of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, along with the Nobel Prize recognition of the underlying technology, has provided a strong scientific and technical foundation for this approach.

The Key to Breaking Through: The Central Role of Cancer Vaccines

Cancer vaccines represent a core strategy in tumor immunotherapy, designed to stimulate the body's own immune system to precisely recognize and eliminate tumor cells. Unlike conventional therapies, they harness the body's natural defense mechanisms, offering advantages including fewer side effects, potential for durable immune memory, and long-term protective effects.

tricision's Survivin-Targeting mRNA-DC Cell Injection

Survivin is highly expressed in 95% of malignant gliomas and helps cancer cells resist therapy. tricision's vaccine delivers antigen-encoding mRNA into Dendritic Cells (DCs), which are then reinfused to induce specific immune responses mediated by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, designed to clear residual tumor cells after surgery.

Encouraging Clinical Data

In exploratory studies conducted at Xijing Hospital, one patient has achieved an Overall Survival (OS) exceeding 8 years (80 months disease-free), demonstrating the remarkable potential of this approach to significantly extend life. Reference: Combination immunotherapy of glioblastoma with dendritic cell cancer vaccines, anti-PD-1 and poly I:C. J Pharm Anal. 2023 Jun;13(6):616-624.

The Future is Within Reach: Beijing Tiantan Hospital is currently conducting a Phase I Clinical Trial (CT) of "Survivin-Targeting DC Cell Injection" for GBM (Clinical Trial Registration No.: CTR20240438). For inquiries, please contact: 15810449839, Manager Zhang.

About the Survivin-Targeting mRNA-DC Tumor Vaccine

On January 10, 2023, tricision's mRNA-DC vaccine for GBM—Survivin-Targeting DC Cell Injection—received Clinical Trial Permission (CTP) from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) (Approval No. 2023LP00065), making it the world's first Survivin-targeting mRNA-DC therapeutic cancer vaccine to enter clinical trials.

The therapy involves extracting a patient's own DCs, loading them with mRNA encoding the Survivin antigen, and reinfusing them to induce antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses. This approach is designed to eliminate residual tumor cells post-surgery, prevent recurrence, and extend survival in primary GBM patients.

Published data confirm the vaccine's efficacy: for glioma patients, median OS was 19 months in the treatment group (n=5) versus 11 months in the control group (n=28). For Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) patients with brain metastases, the respective figures were 17 months (n=5) versus 7 months (n=13). One patient has been reported to have an OS exceeding 60 months (5 years), with no Dose-Limiting Toxicity (DLT) or treatment-related Adverse Events (AEs) observed across the entire cohort.