IUSM seeks patients for lymphoma vaccine study

"The tumor-specific vaccine is made from proteins produced within the tumor of each patient with the intent of making the treatment more effective," said Dr. Kristen Ganjoo, assistant professor of medicine and principal investigator of the trial at the IU Cancer Center. "When vaccinated, the body then recognizes the modified protein, mounts an immune response and attacks all the malignant tumors producing that protein."

To participate in the Phase III trial, patients must have been diagnosed with low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and not have undergone prior therapy to treat the disease. All patients enrolled will receive standardized chemotherapy for their form of cancer. Patients responding to that treatment will continue in the trial, with two-thirds of the patients receiving a series of injections of the vaccine, while a control group will not receive the vaccine.

All patients will receive immunotherapy designed to enhance the immune system. This phase of the trial is to determine if this vaccine is more effective than standard therapy alone in the treatment of low-grade lymphomas. Patients will be accepted into the trial until the end of the year.

In an earlier clinical trial utilizing a similar type of vaccine, nearly 50 percent of patients mounted an immune response to the cancer cells after receiving the vaccine and did not relapse for as long as seven years. Patients will not be considered cancer-free until they have gone 10 years without a recurrence of the disease.

The trial, which is sponsored by Genitope Corp., is being conducted at 23 medical centers across North America and will include at least 600 patients.

For more information on the trial at IU Cancer Center, call Jill Weisenbach at 317-274-3545.
http://medicine.iupui.edu/ctp/