*3.4. Clinical Outcomes*

Although the primary goal of this study was to provide an analysis of safety and immunoreactivity, preliminary outcome data were obtained (Table 3 and Figure 1). Patients received a mean of 14.2 (range, 8–26) peptide vaccinations. One patient achieved partial response (PR), two patients demonstrated stable disease, and six patients revealed progressive disease 6 months after the first vaccination (Table 3). Patient 7 was removed from the study due to rapid tumor progression. Patients 3, 6, and 10 remain progression-free at 18, 38, and 11 months, respectively, after the first vaccination. Among these patients, Patient 6 achieved compete response (CR) 9 months after the first vaccination. These results indicate the preliminary efficacy of this treatment.


**Table 3.** Clinical results of 10 enrolled patients.

Mo, months; OS, overall survival; PD, progressive disease; PFS, progression-free survival; PR, partial response; SD, stable disease. \* Complete response was achieved after 9 months.

**Figure 1.** Survival analysis of patients by the Kaplan–Meier method. (**a**) Overall survival (OS) curve of all patients (*n* = 10). The median OS time (mOS) of all patients was 9.2 months and 1-year OS was 44.4%; (**b**) OS curve of glioblastoma (GB) patients (*n* = 7). The mOS was 9.1 months and 1-year OS was 33.3% in GB patients.

The Kaplan–Meier curves for overall survival in all 10 patients and seven glioblastoma (GB) patients are shown in Figure 1a,b, respectively. The median overall survival time (mOS) in all patients and GB patients was 9.2 months and 9.1 months, respectively. One-year OS was 44.4% for all patients and 33.3% for GB patients, respectively.

Five patients were treated with bevacizumab before registration. In this group, 1-year OS was 0% and mOS was 8.6 months. Otherwise, in GB patients who had not received bevacizumab before registration, mOS was 23.6 months. Our findings suggest that the GB patients who did not receive bevacizumab had a longer survival period than those treated with bevacizumab following a combination of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, but no significant differences in OS were observed—likely due to the small sample numbers.
