Melanoma
Clinical Trials Tests CpG7909 and Melan-A Combination Melanoma Cancer Vaccines
By JCI
Mar 18, 2005 - 4:38:00 PM

Results from the first Phase 1 clinical trial of a vaccine composed of a synthetic bacterial sequence, CpG7909 (ProMune TM , Coley Pharmaceuticals), and a melanoma antigen, Melan-A, indicate that this vaccine combination is not only safe but also can improve and bolster immune responses to tumors.

Lead authors and members of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, Drs. Daniel E. Speiser and Pedro Romero and their team from the Lausanne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland, reported their promising findings in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. In the clinical trial, the eight melanoma patients who each received four monthly injections of the vaccination all exhibited a strong antigen-specific T-cell response, with a rapid increase in the frequency of Melan-A specific T cells.

These T-cell clones recognize and kill melanoma cells in an antigen-specific manner. It was observed that the majority of T-cell responses developed rapidly with T-cell frequencies peaking seven to ten days after vaccination. Future studies will explore if increased doses of CpG7909 and/or peptides can further enhance the observed T-cell activation.

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