--- title: How Tetanus Shots Help Fight Brain Cancer description: Patients who got the tetanus booster lived more than two years on average canonical: https://time.com/3741127/tetanus-shots-fight-brain-cancer/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-11T19:29:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:05:22.269Z article:section: Health og:title: How Tetanus Shots Help Fight Brain Cancer og:description: Patients who got the tetanus booster lived more than two years on average og:url: https://time.com/3741127/tetanus-shots-fight-brain-cancer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52dd878bafb3a1e1/698783338e0601ff5245abbe/164210757-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 507 og:image:height: 285 og:image:alt: syringe-hand og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Tetanus Shots Help Fight Brain Cancer twitter:description: Patients who got the tetanus booster lived more than two years on average twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52dd878bafb3a1e1/698783338e0601ff5245abbe/164210757-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Tetanus Shots Help Fight Brain Cancer > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Mar 11, 2015 7:29 PM UTC  Hand holding syringe in plain pink background Hand holding syringe in plain pink background Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Mar 11, 2015 7:29 PM UTC Researchers who have harnessed the body’s immune system to fight cancer have found a way to make the approach work even better, using an ordinary tetanus vaccine. They used their double-vaccine approach to greatly lengthen the lives of patients with one of the deadliest types of cancer — the brain tumor glioblastoma. “Patients with glioblastoma usually survive for little more than one year. However, in patients who received the immunotherapy, half lived nearly five years or longer from their diagnosis,” said Dr. John Sampson of Duke University Medical Center, who oversaw the study. The team has been using what is… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/tetanus-vaccine-boosts-cancer-therapy-n321596?cid=par-time-article%5F20141002) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3741127/tetanus-shots-fight-brain-cancer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3741127/tetanus-shots-fight-brain-cancer/"},"headline":"How Tetanus Shots Help Fight Brain Cancer","datePublished":"2015-03-11T19:29:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:05:22.269Z","description":"Patients who got the tetanus booster lived more than two years on average","url":"https://time.com/3741127/tetanus-shots-fight-brain-cancer/","keywords":["Research","Public Health","Vaccines"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52dd878bafb3a1e1/698783338e0601ff5245abbe/164210757-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52dd878bafb3a1e1/698783338e0601ff5245abbe/164210757-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"syringe-hand","caption":"syringe-hand","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3741127/tetanus-shots-fight-brain-cancer/","name":"How Tetanus Shots Help Fight Brain Cancer"}}]}] ```