Safety and Effectiveness of a Vaccine for Prostate Cancer That Uses Each Patients' Own Immune Cells.

Prostate Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: A Phase I/II Study of Autologous Dendritic Cells Pulsed With Apoptotic Tumor Cells (DC/LNCaP) Administered Subcutaneously to Prostate Cancer Patients.

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and activity of a type of vaccine as immune therapy for prostate cancer. This vaccine will be made for each participant's own immune cells (called dendritic cells) obtained by blood donation. Dendritic cells are immune cells, whose role is to identify foreign antigens (bacteria, viruses, or tumor cells, for example) in the body and to activate other cells of the immune system to mount an attack on that foreign antigen. Each participant will be randomized into either Arm 1 (experimental treatment only) or Arm 2 (placebo first, then the experimental treatment). Participants will be given the vaccine and three boosters as an injection. After the placebo phase, each participant in Arm 2 will crossover to the treatment phase so that all participants will eventually receive the experimental treatment.

Clinical Trial Description

This is a Phase I/II dendritic cell vaccine study for patients with prostate cancer. Our laboratory has demonstrated that effective tumor immunity in humans is associated with, and likely mediated at least in part by tumor antigen-specific killer T cells (Albert et al., 1998a; Darnell, 1999; Darnell and Posner, 2003). Moreover, we have demonstrated that apoptotic material derived from dying tumor cells are a potent means of delivering antigen to DCs and subsequently triggering tumor antigen-specific T cell responses ex vivo (Albert et al., 1998a; Albert et al., 1998c). In this study, patients with 3 consecutive rises in PSA measured at least 2 week apart, after definite local therapy (prostatectomy or radiation) will be recruited. Peripheral blood monocytes will be collected by leukapheresis and dendritic cells will be generated in the Cleanroom in the Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology. These dendritic cells will be pulsed with apoptotic prostate cancer cells from a cell line (LNCaP), harvested, tested for certain release criteria, and then injected as vaccine. When patients are found to be eligible for the study, they will be randomized into either the experimental group or the placebo group for the purposes of comparing adverse events between groups only. Vaccine plus 3 boosters (or placebo) will be given, each two weeks apart. After the third booster, patients will be unblinded. Those receiving the vaccine will when enter the follow up phase which includes a post treatment leukapheresis. Those in the placebo group will cross over and receive the vaccine and boosters. The primary outcomes to be evaluated are toxicity and activity. Patients will be evaluated for both local and systemic toxicity. For activity, we measure both immunological and clinical responses to the vaccine, comparing measures taken before and after vaccination, combining patients in both arms. ;

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment, Masking: Single Blind (Subject), Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Prostate Cancer
• Prostatic Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT00289341
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Rockefeller University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2
• Start date: March 2002
• Completion date: November 2008