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Download File - JOHN J. HADDAD, Ph.D.

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Preclinical Models and Clinical Situation 41<br />

Chemotherapy Plus Active Immunotherapy<br />

Chemotherapeutic agents have been tested with cancer vaccines and have<br />

demonstrated synergy in several models. For instance, docetaxel administered<br />

two days prior to each of the three vaccinations of GM-CSF-secreting B16<br />

melanoma cells results in 50% long-term survival of B16 tumor–bearing mice<br />

compared to 10% survival with either agent alone (76). While docetaxel was<br />

shown to induce neutropenia and lymphopenia, the expansion and survival of<br />

antigen-specific T cells (examined in OT-1 TCR transgenic mice using OVAtransfected<br />

B16 cells) was not impaired. In another study using neu transgenic<br />

mice, three different chemotherapeutic drugs (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin,<br />

and paclitaxel) were tested in combination with a HER-2/neu expressing tumor<br />

vaccine and showed enhanced activity in a therapeutic setting (77). Whether<br />

drug was administered before or after vaccination affected the outcome and the<br />

optimal order of administration was found to vary from one drug to the next.<br />

Some recent clinical studies provide yet another somewhat surprising<br />

perspective on how active immunotherapy might synergize with chemotherapy.<br />

With the caveat associated with retrospective analysis, 25 patients with glioblastoma<br />

multiforme were vaccinated with DCs loaded with autologous tumor<br />

HLA-eluted peptides or tumor lysate (78). Thirteen of these patients went on to<br />

receive subsequent chemotherapy. An additional 13 nonvaccinated patients<br />

analyzed in this study also received chemotherapy. Of the vaccine plus<br />

chemotherapy-treated patients, 42% were two-year survivors while only 8% of<br />

patients treated with chemotherapy alone or vaccine alone survived this long. It<br />

is hypothesized that infiltrating CD8þ T cells may upregulate markers on the<br />

tumor (e.g., Fas), which render cells more susceptible to chemotherapeutic drugs<br />

that kill targets via induction of apoptosis.<br />

In another study, a striking response rate of 62% among 21 extensive-stage<br />

small cell lung cancer patients treated with second-line chemotherapy was<br />

observed after vaccination with DCs transduced with full-length p53 (79).<br />

Thirteen of the 21 patients were platinum-resistant and 61.5% of these were<br />

responders. In a third study of patients with various metastatic cancers treated<br />

with a DNA vaccine encoding a common tumor antigen, five of six immune<br />

responders who received subsequent salvage therapy experienced unexpected<br />

clinical benefit (80). Among those benefiting from the salvage therapy were four<br />

patients with progressive disease after vaccination. Among eight patients who<br />

did not demonstrate immunity to vaccination and who survived to receive<br />

additional therapy, only one derived clinical benefit.<br />

Clearly, determining the optimal mode of administration represents a<br />

challenge to clinical applications of vaccine/chemotherapy combinations, as the<br />

best regimen may only be understood through an extensive matrix of combination<br />

testing in clinical trials. Furthermore, as discussed by Lake and Robinson,<br />

delivery of more antigen by vaccination may not be necessary in cases where the<br />

chemotherapeutic agent alone results in sufficient antigen release via tumor cell

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