NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A phase I trial of a whole cell vaccine developed from an adenocarcinoma line transfected with CD80 and HLA A1 or A2 showed “minimal toxicity and good survival” in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), researchers report in the July 15th issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Luis A. Raez of the University of Miami School of Medicine and colleagues note that similar vaccines have shown “good activity” in human studies but the approach has not been tested in NSCLC.
To do so, the researchers studied 19 patients with NSCLC. All had been heavily pretreated and carried large tumor burdens.
Overall 18 patients received a total of 30 courses of the vaccine.
All but one patient had a measurable immune response after 6 weeks, and responses tended to increase after 12 weeks and stabilize by 18 weeks.
Six surviving, clinically responsive patients continued to have elevated CD8 titers, even after cessation of vaccination, for up to 150 weeks.
Median survival for all patients was 18 months. Survival was estimated to be 30% at 3 years.
Now that the vaccine appears safe, Dr. Raez told Reuters Health, further studies are planned in patients who have “just had surgery for lung cancer --the chance of relapse is more than 50% despite adequate surgery -- to prevent or delay the relapse.”
Another group they plan to treat is patients with stage IV disease who “finish palliative chemotherapy and respond so well” that they are placed under observation. “We will vaccinate them to delay the relapse” that may otherwise take place relatively shortly thereafter.
Source: J Clin Oncol 2004;22:2800-2807. [ Google search on this article ]
MeSH Headings:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung: Clinical Trials: Environment and Public Health: Epidemiologic Methods: Evaluation Studies: Health: Health Occupations: Health Services Administration: Medicine: Investigative Techniques: Population Characteristics: Preventive Medicine: Public Health: Quality of Health Care: Recombinant Proteins: Specialties, Medical: Vaccines, Synthetic: Epidemiologic Study Characteristics: Clinical Trials, Phase I: Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation: Health Care Evaluation Mechanisms: Cancer Vaccines: Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment: Biological Sciences: Health CareCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
