Combination immunotherapy using adoptive T-cell transfer and tumor antigen vaccination on the basis of hTERT and survivin after ASCT for myeloma

AP Rapoport, NA Aqui, EA Stadtmauer… - Blood, The Journal …, 2011 - ashpublications.org
AP Rapoport, NA Aqui, EA Stadtmauer, DT Vogl, HB Fang, L Cai, S Janofsky, A Chew…
Blood, The Journal of the American Society of Hematology, 2011ashpublications.org
Abstract In a phase 1/2 two-arm trial, 54 patients with myeloma received autografts followed
by ex vivo anti-CD3/anti-CD28 costimulated autologous T cells at day 2 after transplantation.
Study patients positive for human leukocyte antigen A2 (arm A, n= 28) also received
pneumococcal conjugate vaccine immunizations before and after transplantation and a
multipeptide tumor antigen vaccine derived from the human telomerase reverse
transcriptase and the antiapoptotic protein survivin. Patients negative for human leukocyte …
Abstract
In a phase 1/2 two-arm trial, 54 patients with myeloma received autografts followed by ex vivo anti-CD3/anti-CD28 costimulated autologous T cells at day 2 after transplantation. Study patients positive for human leukocyte antigen A2 (arm A, n = 28) also received pneumococcal conjugate vaccine immunizations before and after transplantation and a multipeptide tumor antigen vaccine derived from the human telomerase reverse transcriptase and the antiapoptotic protein survivin. Patients negative for human leukocyte antigen A2 (arm B, n = 26) received the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine only. Patients exhibited robust T-cell recoveries by day 14 with supraphysiologic T-cell counts accompanied by a sustained reduction in regulatory T cells. The median event-free survival (EFS) for all patients is 20 months (95% confidence interval, 14.6-24.7 months); the projected 3-year overall survival is 83%. A subset of patients in arm A (36%) developed immune responses to the tumor antigen vaccine by tetramer assays, but this cohort did not exhibit better EFS. Higher posttransplantation CD4+ T-cell counts and a lower percentage of FOXP3+ T cells were associated with improved EFS. Patients exhibited accelerated polyclonal immunoglobulin recovery compared with patients without T-cell transfers. Adoptive transfer of tumor antigen vaccine-primed and costimulated T cells leads to augmented and accelerated cellular and humoral immune reconstitution, including antitumor immunity, after autologous stem cell transplantation for myeloma. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00499577.
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