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| From OncoLog,
July/August 2009, Vol. 54, No. 7/8 |
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Vaccine Improves Survival in Melanoma
A vaccine for advanced melanoma has been shown to improve therapeutic response and progression-free survival in patients receiving interleukin-2 (IL-2), according to researchers from M. D. Anderson. The vaccine is the first in melanoma—and one of the first in all cancers—to show clinical benefit in a randomized phase III clinical trial.
“While more follow-up is needed, this study serves as a proof of principle for vaccines’ role in melanoma and in cancer therapy overall,” said Patrick Hwu, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology and a co-investigator on the study. The peptide vaccine, gp100:209-217 (200M), works by stimulating patients’ T cells, which control immune responses. “The T cells then secrete enzymes that poke holes in the tumor cell’s membrane, causing it to disintegrate,” Dr. Hwu said.
The trial opened more than a decade ago, after an earlier study of the vaccine combined with IL-2 showed a response rate of 42% in patients with metastatic melanoma. The phase III trial showed that patients who received IL-2 and the vaccine had a significantly higher response rate (22.1% vs. 9.7%) and progression-free survival (2.9 months vs. 1.6 months) than the patients who received IL-2 alone.
Dr. Hwu said that although the findings are promising, more research with the vaccine is needed, including long-term follow-up of the phase III trial participants.
“Right now, the vaccine can be given to only half of those with melanoma because it has to match a patient’s tissue type, or HLA. A major priority for us is to figure out ways to broaden our approach and use mixtures of peptides so that more patients are eligible,” Dr. Hwu said. “We also would like to improve upon it by including other immune-stimulatory agents, such as anti-CTLA4.”
The study’s findings were presented in May at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Orlando.
For more information on this topic or for questions about M. D. Anderson’s treatments, programs, or services, call askMDAnderson at (877) MDA-6789.
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