Hope remains

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins a star-studded lineup for Hollywood's "Stand Up 2 Cancer"
on Friday and then takes you backstage on this weekend's "SGMD," Saturday-Sunday
7:30 a.m. ET

(CNN) -- Almost a year to the day after learning he had the
deadliest form of brain cancer, Steve Holl was dancing at his daughter Eryn's
wedding.

"To have my dad there was just one of those moments where you
really want to stop time," Eryn Holl says. "You want to look at him and hold on
tight."

Fewer than one in three patients with Holl's type of cancer, a
glioblastoma, have traditionally survived a year, let alone been well enough to
dance.

But Holl, 61, has something going for him beyond radiation and
chemotherapy -- a custom-made vaccine.

Holl (pronounced Hall) received
the vaccine as part of a clinical trial at the University of California San
Francisco.

"The approach that we take is we actually do the surgery. We
take the tumor out, and then we make the vaccine directly from that individual
patient's tumor. And then give that vaccine back to the patient," says Dr.
Andrew Parsa, who heads the trial.

Glioblastomas have been particularly
deadly because no matter how skilled, neurosurgeons cannot remove the entire
tumor. Some cancer cells remain hidden in the brain and eventually grow back --
usually within months. It's in the family of brain cancers that claimed the life
of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

So far, Parsa's ongoing clinical trial is beating
those odds. More than a year into the trial, none of the eight patients who have
received vaccines made from their tumors has seen cancer return.

"It's
really, really encouraging," Parsa says, adding that it's too early to draw any
big conclusions.

The vaccines are designed to alert the body to cells
that don't belong and trigger the body's immune system to attack multiple points
on the cancer cells.

How many vaccine doses patients receive depend on
how much of the tumor surgeons are able to remove. Holl had the first of 14
vaccine doses in February.

Using a vaccine to fight cancer makes sense
to Holl, a biologist who lives in Folsom, California.

"Smallpox works,
polio works," says Holl. "You're allowing your own body to combat the cancer,
which is an irregularity anyway."

Parsa envisions someday treating
glioblastomas as a chronic disease, rather than a death sentence.

"I
don't think that it's appropriate to use the word cure with glioblastoma. We
really want to turn this into a chronic disease like hypertension or diabetes
that allows you to take medicine to live a normal life," he says.

Parsa's research is being funded by a combination of federal grants and
donations from advocacy groups such as the National Brain Tumor Society.

"This trial would not have happened without the support of patient
advocacy groups," Parsa says.

In addition to UCSF, Columbia University
and Case Western Reserve University are also testing the vaccine, and the
clinical trial may expand to more hospitals.

In the past month, Holl has
walked Eryn down the aisle and celebrated his 36th wedding anniversary. He is
upbeat about the future.

"I'm really hopeful that the vaccine works and
I can get another 20 years of life," Holl says.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/10/experimental.vaccine.delays.cancer/index.html?hpt=C1.