All clinical trials are fueled, in part, by optimism. A trial currently underway in California is fueled by the optimism of one patient in particular, Kayvon Goodarzy.

Despite decades of effort, there has been an abject lack of new approved therapies for glioblastoma (GBM). The standard of care for this deadly brain tumor has been chemotherapy and radiation, to less-than-ideal results. But that might be changing, and it’s all thanks to Kayvon.

Kayvon is the first person in the world to undergo natural killer (NK) immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial while also using the Optune Gio device, an electric field-generating device that is worn on the scalp and emits an electromagnetic field into the brain that has been found to disrupt cancer cell division. This innovative approach to an already innovative treatment option has produced results that are so positive, Hoag in Newport Beach, California, is now launching an extension of this phase 2, randomized clinical trial. The hope is that not only will more people benefit from this new approach, but that it will set a new standard of care for this rare but incurable cancer.

An inquisitive and determined patient, Kayvon and his wife, Marjaneh, expressed interest in pushing the boundaries of GBM treatment. Following his diagnosis in 2024, Kayvon reluctantly went on medical leave from his mentally demanding career in banking. He gets fatigued easily. His quality of life has diminished. So, the couple was disheartened to learn that the standard of care for GBM that had been established 50 years ago has seen only incremental improvement.

Slowly gaining a foothold in neuro-oncology, the Optune is emerging as an exciting device that seems to help patients modulate their immune system. In Kayvon, I found a willing and fully engaged partner in testing the device in conjunction with NK cell therapy.

At first, Kayvon wore the Optune Gio device as a way to keep his tumor growth at bay while he researched other treatment options and clinical trials nationwide. Ultimately, he chose to enroll in a clinical trial at Hoag that involved using special NK cells paired with a lab-made protein (called N803) to help strengthen the immune system, along with a drug called bevacizumab, which is already used in certain brain cancers. Together, these drug therapies are designed to “wake up” the body’s immune system and help it fight cancer more effectively.

Kayvon was excited by the prospect of harnessing his immune system instead of fighting it, and was intrigued by the way the NK cells work. Most people receiving other types of cell therapies in the brain do so through a port in their scalps, which would prohibit them from wearing the Optune Gio device. But NK cells can cross the blood-brain barrier, allowing the treatment to be injected intravenously without drilling a hole in the patient’s scalp.

This means that anyone involved in the NK study could also wear an Optune Gio device. But only Kayvon did, a distinction that seems to have led to a breakthrough of historic proportions.

In Kayvon, the device appears to have changed the environment around the tumor in a way that helped the NK cells and the N803 work better together. Following his success, Hoag launched an extension of this clinical study to determine whether Kayvon’s results can be replicated in others. If they are, it may represent an enormous breakthrough in this deadly disease.

In this extension study, people with GBM will be randomized into two different cohorts: One cohort will receive the NK cells/N803 injection/bevacizumab infusion plus Optune, and the other group will get everything except the NK cells.

This clinical trial has the potential to be a watershed moment in advancing the standard of care for patients with GBM tumors. And Kayvon, in particular, is excited by the prospect that his experience could potentially alter how GBM is treated worldwide, saying, “Our hope is that this becomes the standard treatment that you can get from the very beginning.”

Simon Khagi, MD, is medical director of neuro-oncology, Hoag Family Cancer Institute.

Hoag is a nonprofit, regional health care delivery network in Orange County, California, that treats more than 30,000 inpatients and 480,000 outpatients annually. Hoag consists of two acute-care hospitals – Hoag Hospital Newport Beach, which opened in 1952, and Hoag Hospital Irvine, which opened in 2010 – in addition to nine health centers and 13 urgent care centers.