According to Seattle company Northwest Biotherapeutics, its brain tumor vaccine DCVax(R)-Brain has been approved by the Swiss Institute of Public Health for the treatment of brain cancer patients in Switzerland. The vaccine will be manufactured in the U.S. and commercially available on the Swiss market late 2007 (3rd quarter). This marks the first brain cancer vaccine available on market. The company is moving forward with Phase II clinical trials in the U.S. Brain cancer median survival is about 14.6 months and affects all ages including children. DCVax(R)-Brain is based on the company’s personalized therapy strategy where the patient’s own immune cells were treated with the patient’s own tumor “biomarkers” (usually surface proteins that mark a cancer cell’s unique traits), and recirculated in the patient. This strategy ideally exposes the patient’s own immune system with patient’s own immune cells that have been exposed and therefore active against the patient’s tumors. According to the company, DCVax(R)-Brain improved survival in patients who received the drug compared with those who did not. Additionally, the vaccine has a different safety profile than chemotherapy and may be seen as less debilitating, which is often desired by patients. Source: Northwest Biotherapeutics.