her glioblastoma tumor was discovered in 2012.apy, and radiation bought her two and a half years. but the tumor came roaring back. now, the virus in this syringe which mankind has fought to eradicate from the earth, is the last chance she has in the world. >> you might feel a little tug. >> pelley: in october this past year, half a teaspoon of polio flowed into her tumor. >> okay. ready to go? >> nancy justice: i'm ready, bring it on. >> we're starting. 9:21. >> annik desjardins: if you feel anything, you let us know. >> justice: i will definitely. >> desjardins: perfect. >> pelley: well, let me ask, do you feel anything? >> justice: no. so far so good. don't feel a thing. >> pelley: her husband, greg constantly inflates a buoyant optimism to save him from the weight of the unknown. glioblastoma was diagnosed in the 21st year of the georgia couple's marriage, just as they could make out the finish line for zach and luke at college. her tumor can double in size every two weeks. and when glioblastoma returns, time is short-- doctors

is found in glioblastoma cells but not in healthy brain tissue. like a bloodhound give an scent the body's immune cells use the c.m.v. protein to find and then destroy the cancer cells. dr. john sampson is professor of surgery at duke. >> reporter: because our immune systems are particularly adept at attacking viruses we felt it would be a great opportunity for us to attack the tumor by attacking the virus. >> reporter: in early studies the vaccine did not work well, so a tetanus shot was added before treatment the prime the immune system. >> tetanus produces a certain chemical which is a superactivator for the vaccine. >> reporter: six patients received cmv alone and survived 18.5 months. six others got a tetanus shot first, three survived for an average of 22 months. two lived for about five and six years, and one hillburn is still healthy at nine. you had one grandson before you got sick. >> yes. >> reporter: did you ever imagine you would be able to be around to see five more grandchildren. >> this sounds so obnoxious, but yes. in fact, i thin

a doctor came in to say that she had this glioblastoma tumor the size of a tennis ball. >> looked at nurse that was sitting there holding my hand, and i said, "i don't understand. what did he just say?" it was kind of hard for me to process. >> reporter: stephanie became the first of 22 patients to allow a modified polio virus to be dripped directly into her brain tumor. researchers are finding that the polio starts the killing, but it's the immune system awakened to the infection that wrecks the tumor. patient likes stephanie usually have months to live. but this is her m.r.i. last august. and there's no cancer in this picture at all. >> we don't see any cancer, active cancer cells in the tumor at all. >> reporter: dr. henry friedman is deputy director of duke's brain tumor center. i wonder of all the trials and all of the theories and all of the treatments that you have hoped for all of these years, how does does this stack up? >> this, to me, is the most promising therapy i have seen in my career period. >> reporter: dr. matthias gromier created the virus, using genetic engineerin

one target is glioblastoma, the type of brain cancer that killed senator edward kennedy. dr. marcela maus led the research using mice. >> here's a mouse that's been treated with the t cells that we're using to target glioblastoma, and we see that most of the tumor is gone. so that makes us feel comfortable thinking that this kind of t cell would actually potentially be effective for brain cancers. >> reporter: and the results have been consistent? >> yes. >> reporter: so, recently three brain cancer patients were treated with the re-engineered t-cells. are their tumors shrinking? >> it's the critical question in all of this, were, there's so much scientific appeal, there's a lot of pre-clinical data, there's the clinical history with the lymphoma patients, but will it work in the brain? its too early to tell. unknowns include whether the modified t-cells can penetrate a barrier around the brain to get to the tumor, and whether patients can withstand the side effects. >> we've been concerned from the beginning that the release of these compounds called cytokines from the t cel

three years after the infusion, something unimaginable has happened for a patient with recurrent glioblastomare's no cancer in the picture at all. >> we see no cancer active cancer at all. >> she is cancer-free. the only thing that remains is this hole which is an artifact of an early surgery. >> under traditional standard of care treatment, stephanie should not be standing here next to us today. >> absolutely not. >> stephanie, when they showed this to you, what did you think? >> i wanted to cry. with excitement this time. >> how surprised are you by that? >> i'm surprised because you never expect on a phase 1 study in particular, which is what she is on, to have these kinds of results. >> you're not expecting to cure someone in a phase 1 trial. >> you're not expecting to help them but you hope so. when you get anything on top of the that it's a cake. >> quite a cake. >> quite a cake. biggest cake we've seen in a long long time. >> you can watch scott the pelley's entire 60 minutes report "killing cancer" on cbsnews.com. >>> that's the "cbs morning news" for this monday. i'm alison harmelin.

. >> reporter: her diagnosis, glioblastoma. >> highly absolutely devasta.and universally fatal. >> reporter: but she took part in a duke university medical trial that extended her life. so the grandmother of two can now proudly say she is a grandmother of six. the study was small, 12 people altogether. following standard surgery, chemotherapy and radiation all received a novel therapy that uses the body's own immune system. six were also given a dose of well-known vaccine, the tetanus booster. >> if you give patient a boost of tetanus, it sort of puts the lymph nodes as well as the entire immune system on alert acting like a siren to the rest of the cells. >> reporte immunotherapy is given, doctor believe the body is primeight the cancer cells more aggressively. the median rate for the six wh received the tetanus was over six years, that's twice as long as the patients who received standard therapy. hillburn's success exceeded al expectations. and she still has no sign of a tumor. doctors say it's too early to know for sure but they're hopeful the research

she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a vicious brain cancer with average survival of one to two years ago. >> i was actually told they would have two or three months to live. >> in 2006 she began an skpirnltal vaccine therapy at dune yien vertz. the white blood cells are extract and exposed to protein from a vie ras called cmv. like a bloodhound given a scent it finds and destroys the cancer cells. dr. john sampson is professor at the university of duke. >> because they're adept at attacking viruses, fwelt it would be a great opportunity to attack the tumor by attacking the virus. >> in early studies the vaccine did not work well so a net tetanus shot was added to prime the immune system. >> it produces a certain chemical which is an activator for the vaccine. >> six patients received the vaccine alone and survived 18.5 months. three survived for an average of the months. two limped for about five and six years, and one, hill burn is still healthy at 9. >> you had one grandson before you got sick. >> yes. >> did you ever imagine you'd be able to be around to see five more grandchildre