Pilot Study of Interferon Alfa for Patients Who Have Received Cancer Vaccines

Summary

This research study is for people who have previously received cancer vaccines. The investigators are testing a form of therapy known as interferon alfa-2a, which is commercially available as the drug Roferon®-A, to see if it can be used to help boost the effects of the cancer vaccine and help the immune system attack the cancer. It is believed that the body's immune system can attack tumor cells and kill them. This is thought to be due to immune cells called T cells which can recognize special proteins on the surface of tumors as a signal to fight the cancer. However, the vaccine may not work very well if the protein signal is too weak for the T cells to find your tumors. The investigators think that interferon alfa-2a can signal the cancer cells in the body to make more proteins that may allow the T cells to recognize and kill the cancer cells better.

Timeline

Start

2005-11

Primary completion

2008-05

Completion

2008-05

Drugs

Indications