Not sure where to put this. But I'm sure DNDN watchers could find something of interest here.
[Proceedings of the 11th NCI · EORTC · AACR Symposium]
Copyright © 2000 Stichting NCI-EORTC Symposium on New Drugs in Cancer Therapy
Published by the AACR.
054 Vaccination of renal cell cancer with tumor cell - dendritic cell hybrids. Gernot Stuhler1, Alexander Kugler2. Peter Walden3, Anke Zobywalski1, Lothar Kanz1 and Rolf-Hermann Ringert2. 1Medical University Clinic, Tübingen, 2University of Göttingen, Depart. of Urology, 3Dept. of Dermatology, Charité, Humbold University, Berlin, Germany.
Hybrid cell vaccination is a novel cancer immune therapy that aims at recruiting helper T cells for induction of a cytolytic immune response against renal cell carcinomas and other tumors. Hybrids of autologous tumor cells and allogeneic MHC class II bearing mature dendritic cells were generated using electrofusion techniques to present HLA class I restricted tumor associated antigens expressed by the autologous tumor in concert with the co-stimulating capabilities of the allogeneic dendritic cell.
Safety, feasibility and efficacy of this treatment strategy were assessed in a clinical phase I study. Seventeen patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma were immunized with hybrids of autologous tumor and allogeneic dendritic cells and received booster vaccinations after six and twelve weeks followed by the evaluation of the anti-tumor effects of the vaccination. Twelve weeks after the first immunization, a objective response rate of 41% was observed. After a mean follow up of 13 months, four patients completely rejected all metastatic tumor lesions, one presented a mixed response and a partial response with a tumor mass reduction of greater 50% was found in other two patients. No clinical manifestations of autoimmune disease or severe adverse effects were observed. Moreover, the induction of HLA-A2 restricted cytolytic T cells reactive with the Muc1 tumor associated antigen that is expressed on primary tumor lesions in 83% of the study population and recruitment of CD8+ lymphocytes into delayed type hypersensitivity reactions using tumor cells as the challenging agent were found.
The data reported here indicate that hybrid cell vaccination is a safe, effective and long lasting therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma and may provide a broadly applicable strategy for other malignancies. Plenary Session 11 Gene therapy and gene delivery systems |
