Immunological evaluation of peptide vaccination for patients with gastric cancer based on pre-existing cellular response to peptide

Cancer Sci. 2003 Sep;94(9):802-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2003.tb01522.x.

Abstract

There is no standard treatment modality for advanced gastric cancer (GC) at the present time. To develop a new treatment modality, we investigated the immunological responses of advanced GC patients (n = 13, 9 non-scirrhous and 4 scirrhous types) vaccinated with peptides to a regimen under which pre-vaccination peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were screened for their reactivity in vitro to each of 14 peptides on HLA-A24 or 16 peptides on -A2 allele, then only the reactive peptides (maximum: 4) were administered in vivo. This regimen was generally well tolerated, although grade I levels of fever and local skin reactions were observed in several patients. Delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) to the vaccinated peptides was observed in 4 patients. Increased cellular and humoral immune responses to the vaccinated peptides were observed in post-vaccination PBMCs from 4 of 8 patients and in post-vaccination sera of 8 of 10 patients tested, respectively. Prolonged survival was observed in patients showing cellular and humoral immune responses to the vaccinated peptides in the post-vaccination samples, including all 4 patients with the scirrhous type. These results encourage further development of peptide-based immunotherapy for GC patients.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Clinical Trial, Phase I
  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / immunology
  • Adenocarcinoma / prevention & control
  • Aged
  • Cancer Vaccines / therapeutic use*
  • Cytotoxicity, Immunologic
  • Female
  • HLA-A Antigens / immunology*
  • HLA-A2 Antigen / immunology*
  • HLA-A24 Antigen
  • Humans
  • Immunity, Cellular
  • Lymphatic Metastasis
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / prevention & control
  • Peptide Fragments / therapeutic use*
  • Skin Tests
  • Stomach Neoplasms / immunology
  • Stomach Neoplasms / prevention & control*
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / immunology
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Vaccination*

Substances

  • Cancer Vaccines
  • HLA-A Antigens
  • HLA-A2 Antigen
  • HLA-A24 Antigen
  • Peptide Fragments