In murine models, transgenic
chemokine-
cytokine tumor vaccines overcome many of the limitations of single-agent
immunotherapy by producing the sequence of T-cell attraction followed by proliferation of
tumor antigen-activated clones. The safety and immunologic effects of this approach in humans were tested in 7 patients with relapsed or refractory
neuroblastoma. They each received up to 8
subcutaneous injections of a
vaccine combining
lymphotactin--and
interleukin-2 (IL-2)--secreting autologous
neuroblastoma cells in a dose-escalating scheme. Adverse events were limited to grade 1 or 2 localized reactions in all patients,
pain in 3 patients, and
fever in 3 patients. Injection site biopsies revealed increased cellularity caused by infiltration of CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes, eosinophils, and dendritic cells with a decrease in dendritic cells from the first to the second vaccination. Systemically,
vaccine was associated with increased
tumor recognition as measured by
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent spot assays. Two patients had
interferon-gamma predominant responses and 3 had
IL-5 predominant responses. Only 1 patient received all 8
injections, 1 patient stopped the study early, and all other patients progressed before completion of the study. Hence, autologous
tumor cell
vaccines combining transgenic
lymphotactin with
IL-2 seem to have little toxicity in humans and can induce an antitumor immune response. In this setting, the immune response was insufficient to overcome active recurrent
neuroblastoma.