Prognosis
Brain Cancer Patient Is First to Get Untested Treatment Under Trump-Backed Law
- Right to Try law backed by Trump allows experimental drug use
- Closely-held Belgian company providing brain-cancer vaccine
Source: Nomadsoul1/iStockphoto via Getty Images
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A California man with a deadly form of brain cancer is receiving an experimental therapy under the so-called Right to Try law, the first publicly known use of the controversial legislation that was signed into law in May 2018 by President Donald Trump.
The treatment, called Gliovac, is a vaccine crafted from the patient’s own cells and tissue taken from other patients with glioblastoma -- the same aggressive tumor that killed John McCain a year after his diagnosis. It’s being provided to the man, who has chosen to remain anonymous for now, by Epitopoietic Research Corp., or ERC, a closely-held Belgian company that is testing it in human trials.