Abstract: BACKGROUND AND AIM: To evaluate the therapeutical effect of autologous Newcastle-Disease-Virus (NDV) modified tumor cell vaccine in the treatment of malignant gliomas. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eight patients with malignant gliomas were treated with autologous NDV-Modified tumor cell vaccine from May to November of 2001. The tumor was total or sub-total resected under neuromicroscope and the tumor tissues were preserved for vaccine preparation and drug sensitive test. All the patients received postoperative radiotherapy followed by one cycle of chemotherapy. Four weeks after chemotherapy, the patients were immunized with tumor vaccines once a week for four weeks. RESULTS: All the patients were followed up from 10 to 25 months by June of 2003. Four patients survived without the evidence of recurrence with the Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) from 90 to 100, and the survival time was 25,24,20 and 23 months, respectively (mean 23 months). Four cases recurred, and three of them died in the 10th, 14th, 15th month after the treatment, respectively. One patient with frontal glioma of Grade III recurred within 13 months after resection. The patient was treated with gamma-knife radiosurgery and chemotherapy and still alive up to 19 months follow-up end.The mean survival time in this therapy was more than one in documents, which was less 1 year for the patients with malignant glionas. CONCLUSIONS: Autologous modified tumor cell vaccines for treatment of malignant gliomas may be a promising alternative to enhance patients' immunity and prevent the recurrence of gliomas, however, its efficiency need to be immproved.

Key words: glioma, vaccination, immunotherapy