Many of the efforts toward developing
vaccines against human
malignancies have been frustrated by the lack of identification of a
tumor-specific
antigen that would allow
tumor cells to be distinguished from normal cells. Idiotypic determinants of the
surface immunoglobulin (Ig) associated with a given patient's
B-cell lymphoma are unique to that
tumor, and can thus serve as a
tumor-specific marker. When conjugated to the immune carrier
keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), vaccination with an idiotype
protein vaccine has been able to improve length of freedom from disease relapse in patients with
follicular lymphoma (FL) in a
minimal residual disease (MRD) state after induction
therapy, as demonstrated in a recent randomized, controlled phase III trial. In addition to predictive
biomarker discovery, using residual autologous
tumor and blood samples from patients vaccinated on the phase III trial, we have now developed a next generation idiotype
DNA vaccine with the goal of reducing
vaccine production time while maintaining efficacy. A first-in-human study is planned to evaluate its use in patients with asymptomatic phase lymphoplasmacytic
lymphoma.