Intensive vaccine reinduction extends survival for melanoma patients.(Brief Article)

2002 SEP 25 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Intensive vaccine reinduction therapy for patients with recurrent malignant melanoma significantly increased survival time, according to researchers in California

"We have observed prolonged survival in patients undergoing vaccine reinduction after resection of recurrent metastatic melanoma and adjuvant polyvalent allogenic cell vaccine (PACV) immunotherapy," commented Eddy C. Hsueh and colleagues at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California. "We hypothesized that reinduction with a more intensive vaccine regimen would restimulate specific immune responses that were correlated with survival after recurrence."

The investigators selected 194 patients who experienced a recurrence of malignant melanoma during the PAVC (CancerVax vaccine) treatment that followed resection surgery. Of the 194 patients, 94 followed a regimen that included inoculation with two doses bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) along with the PACV on an accelerated schedule. The remaining 100 patients did not receive vaccine reinduction (Active immunotherapy by reinduction with a polyvalent allogeneic cell vaccine correlates with improved survival in recurrent metastatic melanoma. Annals of Surgical Oncology, 2002;9(5):486-492).

Reinduction therapy stimulated a significant increase in the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response before the malignancy recurred (p=0.0001). Survival time was extended for patients who received the ...