A novel proteoliposomal vaccine induces antitumor immunity against follicular lymphoma.

Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. sneelapu@mdanderson.org

Clinical studies suggest that treatment with vaccines comprised of idiotype protein may be associated with improved clinical outcome in follicular lymphoma patients. The time-consuming process required to generate patient-specific vaccines is a major limitation, however. Here we report results of a pilot clinical trial with a novel autologous, tumor-derived proteoliposome vaccine formulation that could be rapidly produced within a single day. Vaccination was safe, induced autologous tumor-specific type 1 cytokine responses in 5 out of 10 follicular lymphoma patients, and was associated with induction of a sustained complete response in one patient. Other patients had large tumor burdens and progressed after a median duration of 8 months. These results suggest that further testing of this vaccine formulation, particularly in the setting of minimal disease, is warranted. Furthermore, the proteoliposome formulation may provide a model for vaccine development for other human cancers, for which tumor-associated antigens need not be defined.

PMID: 17339422 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC1941785