PHILADELPHIA - Last year, David Berd, oncologist at Thomas Jefferson University here has found that melanoma patients are injected with modified versions of their own tumor cells after surgery were almost twice as likely to remain without tumor as patients who received surgery alone. Now EBRD has shown that its new formulation appears to trigger an enhanced immune response. The finding, reported in the current issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation , is the first evidence that this pioneering cancer therapy acts as a vaccine at the cellular level.
Berd and his colleagues at the National Institute of tumors in Milan, Italy, treated melanoma cells from six patients dinitrophenyl, a chemical that binds to cells and serves as a red flag for immune system. The treated tumor cells deactivated by radiation, are designed to trigger the production of new T cells, which may be required to thwart recurrence of melanoma.
The group injected the modified cells back into the patients, who underwent surgery to remove the melanoma lesions. The preparation has in fact cause increased immune response: Blood samples from five of the six patients had increased levels of T cells, a type of white blood cells which attack tumor cells. "It is not only the old T cells, but specific clones of T cells that had been caused by the vaccine," said EBRD.
Part of what makes the vaccine so ingenious, said Pramod Srivastava, an immunologist at the University of Connecticut, Farmington, is that it is customized for each patient. Berd "is something very difficult, but something that is very appropriate."
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