A report from Duke University revealed that a new vaccine for a fatal brain cancer called glioblastoma looks promising. It is reported that the drug two-folds the survival time of patients.

Researcher John Sampson, MD, PhD, the Robert H. and Gloria Wilkins Professor of Neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center says that contrary to other vaccines that are given to avoid the disease, this one is administered when patients develop cancer.

But it is likely that in the future, a vaccine like this might be used to avoid cancer. According to him, the new vaccine is `twice as good as the standard therapy alone'.

It is observed that in the U. S., around 20,000 people are detected with glioblastoma, every year.

Sampson says, "It's the most deadly form of brain cancer. The average survival after diagnosis is a little more than a year. It hits people in their prime, such as a 50-year-old executive".

The findings of the study appeared in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

He says that surgical procedure, radiation and chemotherapy can be used to treat the disease; however, the diagnosis is dreary even with an all-inclusive therapy.

When added with other treatments, the new vaccine prolonged the median survival time from the projected 15 months to 26 months.