Results of a Phase II clinical trial with Id-protein-loaded dendritic cell vaccine in multiple myeloma: encouraging or discouraging?

• Published in: Immunotherapy Vol. 4; no. 10; pp. 991 - 994
• Main Authors: Garcia-Marquez, Maria A, Wennhold, Kerstin, Draube, Andreas, von Bergwelt-Baildon, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Future Medicine Ltd 01.10.2012
• Subjects: Antigen-presenting cells; Autoimmune diseases; Cancer; Clinical trials; Cytotoxicity; dendritic cell; Dendritic cells; Drug therapy; Health aspects; Id-protein; Immune response; Immune system; Immunology; Immunotherapy; Lymphocytes; Multiple myeloma; Patient outcomes; Physiological aspects; Standardization; T cells; Vaccination; vaccine; Vaccines
• ISSN: 1750-743X; 1750-7448
• DOI: 10.2217/imt.12.94

Recently gained insight into the role of dendritic cells (DCs) as APCs has attracted the attention of many researchers who hope to use them as a tool in immunotherapy for the induction of tumor-specific immunity in cancer settings. Despite high expectations, in multiple myeloma patients the results of DC-based vaccines in terms of clinical response have been disappointing. The findings of Zahradova in a Phase II clinical trial with multiple myeloma patients corroborated these results. Although no clinical responses were observed, the investigators induced immunity after vaccination with Id-protein-loaded DC vaccine in some patients. These immunological results showed a trend towards a longer duration of stable disease in those patients that received the vaccination. Moreover, this study showed that Id-protein-loaded DC vaccines are safe and nontoxic and that they are able to induce immunity in some patients. Therefore, standardization of vaccination protocols appears to be the key to achieving a better clinical outcome.