Peptide-pulsed vs. RNA-transfected Dendritic Cell Vaccines in Melanoma Patients

Summary

Dendritic cells (DCs)are the most potent antigen-presenting cells of the immune system, as such they are able to direct the immune system specifically against cancer cells. Currently DCs are used in clinical vaccination studies and immunological and clinical responses have been observed. For inducing anti-tumor immunity, the DCs have to be loaded with tumor antigen (i.e. molecular structures that are presented by the tumor, that are recognized by the immune system). Currently most studies use tumor peptides (small protein fragments) for this purpose. This approach has several disadvantages: only patients with a certain HLA-type can be treated and the immune response that is induced by the vaccine is limited to the used peptides. These disadvantages do not exist when the DCs present antigen which is endogenously processed, for example after RNA transfection. For this reason we investigate the immunogenicity of DCs that are pulsed with peptides or transfected with mRNA encoding melanoma associated antigens in stage III and IV melanoma patients.

Timeline

Start

2004-04

Primary completion

2009-02

Completion

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Publications

• Background de Vries IJ, Bernsen MR, Lesterhuis WJ, Scharenborg NM, Strijk SP, Gerritsen MJ, Ruiter DJ, Figdor CG, Punt CJ, Adema GJ. Immunomonitoring tumor-specific T cells in delayed-type hypersensitivity skin biopsies after dendritic cell vaccination correlates with clinical outcome. J Clin Oncol. 2005 Aug 20;23(24):5779-87. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2005.06.478.
• Background Lesterhuis WJ, de Vries IJ, Adema GJ, Punt CJ. Dendritic cell-based vaccines in cancer immunotherapy: an update on clinical and immunological results. Ann Oncol. 2004;15 Suppl 4:iv145-51. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdh919. No abstract available.
• Background Figdor CG, de Vries IJ, Lesterhuis WJ, Melief CJ. Dendritic cell immunotherapy: mapping the way. Nat Med. 2004 May;10(5):475-80. doi: 10.1038/nm1039.
• Background de Vries IJ, Lesterhuis WJ, Scharenborg NM, Engelen LP, Ruiter DJ, Gerritsen MJ, Croockewit S, Britten CM, Torensma R, Adema GJ, Figdor CG, Punt CJ. Maturation of dendritic cells is a prerequisite for inducing immune responses in advanced melanoma patients. Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Nov 1;9(14):5091-100.
• Background De Vries IJ, Krooshoop DJ, Scharenborg NM, Lesterhuis WJ, Diepstra JH, Van Muijen GN, Strijk SP, Ruers TJ, Boerman OC, Oyen WJ, Adema GJ, Punt CJ, Figdor CG. Effective migration of antigen-pulsed dendritic cells to lymph nodes in melanoma patients is determined by their maturation state. Cancer Res. 2003 Jan 1;63(1):12-7.
• Background de Vries IJ, Eggert AA, Scharenborg NM, Vissers JL, Lesterhuis WJ, Boerman OC, Punt CJ, Adema GJ, Figdor CG. Phenotypical and functional characterization of clinical grade dendritic cells. J Immunother. 2002 Sep-Oct;25(5):429-38. doi: 10.1097/00002371-200209000-00007.
• Background Adema GJ, de Vries IJ, Punt CJ, Figdor CG. Migration of dendritic cell based cancer vaccines: in vivo veritas? Curr Opin Immunol. 2005 Apr;17(2):170-4. doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2005.01.004.

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