• 8/26/2006
  • Chicago, Il
  • John Otrompke
  • www.docguide.com

Treatment with an intranodal vaccine prepared by feeding apoptotic autologous tumor cells to dendritic cells may benefit some patients with squamous cell head and neck cancer, but lymph node sterility may limit the viability of the treatment for certain patients.

Thirty patients with stage III/IV resectable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck were assessed for the experimental treatment as part of a trial reported here at the annual meeting of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS).

Lymph nodes from the patients were processed, and sterile tumor cells were recovered from 10 of the 30 patients. Lymph nodes from five of the patients in the trial underwent leukapheresis to generate immature dendritic cells, which were then coincubated with apoptotic cells, according to the abstract by Theresa L. Whiteside, PhD, professor of pathology and otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues.

The researchers evaluated the dendritic cell vaccines for cell recovery, viability, purity, and potency and delivered them to four of the patients.

Of the four patients who received the vaccine, none showed toxic effects, and all are alive with no evidence of cancer. The patients all generated immune responses to the vaccines.

However, the researchers noted in their abstract, autologous tumor sterility and small cell numbers limited this vaccination strategy to few enrolled subjects.

Source:
Presentation title: Dendritic Cell (DC)-Based Vaccine for Patients With SCCHN Using Autologous Tumor Cells as Immunogens. Abstract s012_AHNS