( 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 can not 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 do n'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 do n'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 .
Clinical trials to treat cancer tests vaccines made from patients ' own tumors . No patients who received vaccines have seen their cancer return . The antibodies alert the body 's immune system to attack multiple points on the cancer cells . Using a vaccine to fight cancer makes sense to David Holl , a biologist who lives in California .