Dendritic cell therapy in combination with interferon-alpha
for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Tatsugami K, Eto M, Harano M, Hamaguchi M, Miyamoto T, Morisaki T, Furue M, Akashi K, Naito S. Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of dendritic cell (DC) therapy in combination with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Methods: Seven patients, with progressive disease following IFN-alpha and interleukin (IL)-2 treatment, were treated with monocyte-derived DC (Mo-DC) and IFN-alpha between February 2004 and September 2006. They received Mo-DC once a week for 5 weeks and then every 2 weeks either intradermally or intratumorally. IFN-alpha (5-6 million U) was subcutaneously administered three times a week. Tumor size was evaluated by computed tomography scans before and after the 5th and 10th DC vaccination. A delayed-type hypersensitivity test was performed after the 4th and 5th DC administration for immunological monitoring.

Results: Five patients had stable disease while the remaining two patients had progressive disease following 4 months of vaccination. In six patients the time to progression was prolonged in comparison with the previous cytokine treatment. Six patients showed delayed-type hypersensitivity after the 4th or 5th immunization. Three patients developed high fever following DC immunization. Treatment was associated with transient flu-like symptoms.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that DC therapy combined with IFN-alpha is safe and has the potential for prolonging the time to progression in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

PMID: 18564205 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]