Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma

Melanoma (Skin) Clinical Trial

Official title: Vaccination of HLA-A1 and/or -A2+ Stage III or IV Melanoma Patients With Tumor Peptide-Loaded Autologous Dendritic Cells With Prior Depletion of CD25-Positive Cells Using Denileukin Difitox (ONTAK)

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a person's white blood cells mixed with tumor proteins may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Biological therapies such as denileukin diftitox may be able to deliver cancer-killing substances directly to melanoma cells. Combining vaccine therapy with biological therapy may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase I/II trial to study the effectiveness of combining vaccine therapy with denileukin diftitox in treating patients who have stage III or stage IV melanoma.

Clinical Trial Description

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare the efficacy of vaccination with autologous dendritic cells pulsed with tumor and influenza antigen peptides with or without ex vivo CD40-ligand and denileukin diftitox, in terms of tumor-specific T-cell response, in patients with HLA-A1- and/or HLA-A2.1-positive stage III or IV melanoma.

• Determine the safety and tolerability of these vaccinations in these patients.

• Determine tumor response in patients treated with these vaccinations.

OUTLINE:

• Phase I (Administration of denileukin diftitox and vaccinations #1 to #4): Patients undergo leukapheresis for collection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBC). PBMC are processed for the generation of dendritic cells (DC) to be used for vaccinations. DC are pulsed with HLA-A1- and HLA-A2.1-restricted peptides derived from melanoma-associated tumor antigens. DC are pulsed with or without ex vivo treatment with CD40-ligand. Patients receive denileukin diftitox IV for 3 consecutive days before the first vaccination. Patients receive 4 pulsed DC vaccinations subcutaneously (SC) on days 1, 14, 42, and 70 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients who show a tumor response (at least stable disease) may receive vaccination #5 and further booster vaccinations.

• Phase II: DC are generated and pulsed as in phase I. Patients receive up to 6 additional booster pulsed DC vaccinations SC on days 126, 184, 268, 356, 520, and 692 in the absence of disease progession or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed for 10 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 8-30 patients will be accrued for this study within 6-12 months. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Melanoma
• Melanoma (Skin)

• NCT number: NCT00056134
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University Hospital Erlangen
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2
• Start date: October 2002
• Completion date: May 2012