Irradiated Tumor Cells Activate Immune Response After Vaccination.(Brief Article)

2001 NOV 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Using bioengineering techniques, medical researchers at the University of Kansas have constructed a tumor vaccine that might help patients with melanoma.

In a first set of human clinical trials, the vaccine was well tolerated and generated an immune response after repeated vaccinations, according to M. Kusumoto and colleagues, who reported their findings in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy.

To create the vaccine, investigators first extract and apply radiation to a patient's tumor cells and then infect the cells with harmless viruses carrying genes for granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which stimulates the production of specific immune response cells. Patients are subsequently inoculated with vaccines created with their own melanoma cells.

Kusumoto and coworkers performed a Phase I vaccine trial on 9 patients given from 2 to 10 subcutaneous and intradermal doses of the vaccines, spread out over 4-8 week intervals.

A third of the patients experienced swelling at the injection sites, but no serious adverse effects were observed after the vaccinations.

Moreover, white blood cells specifically generated to target melanoma cells increased in at least six patients following vaccination, researchers said (Phase I clinical trial of irradiated autologous melanoma cells adenovirally transduced with human GM-CSF ...