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

Blood. 2011 Jan 20;117(3):788-97. doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-08-299396. Epub 2010 Oct 28.

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.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial, Phase I
  • Clinical Trial, Phase II
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / immunology
  • Combined Modality Therapy
  • Exanthema / etiology
  • Female
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / methods
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy / adverse effects
  • Immunotherapy / methods*
  • Immunotherapy, Adoptive
  • Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Male
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins / chemistry
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins / immunology
  • Middle Aged
  • Multiple Myeloma / immunology
  • Multiple Myeloma / pathology
  • Multiple Myeloma / therapy*
  • Nausea / etiology
  • Peptide Fragments / immunology*
  • Survivin
  • T-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • T-Lymphocytes / transplantation
  • Telomerase / chemistry
  • Telomerase / immunology
  • Transplantation, Autologous
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Vaccination / adverse effects
  • Vaccination / methods*
  • Vomiting / etiology

Substances

  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • BIRC5 protein, human
  • Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Survivin
  • TERT protein, human
  • Telomerase

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT00499577