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Consolidative immunotherapy well-tolerated in Ewing’s tumor
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Patients with Ewing’s tumor and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma who underwent consolidated immunotherapy aimed at remission generated influenza-specific immune responses in a recent study.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and other sites in Maryland and Colorado evaluated 52 patients with translocation positive, recurrent or metastatic Ewing’s tumor or alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.
All patients underwent apheresis for potential immunotherapy. Researchers initiated immunotherapy in 30 patients and divided them into three cohorts.
Patients in all cohorts were assigned to autologous T cells, influenza vaccinations and dendritic cells pulsed with peptides derived from tumor-specific translocation breakpoints and peptide E7. Cohorts one and two received moderate and low-dose recombinant human interleukin-2. Cohort three did not receive recombinant human interleukin-2.
Influenza-specific immune responses occurred in all patients who received immunotherapy. Thirty-nine percent of patients had an immune response to the translocation breakpoint peptides and 25% of patients with HLA-A2+ had E7-specific responses, according to the researchers.
In an intention-to-treat analysis, five-year overall survival for patients apheresed was 31% and for those initiating immunotherapy, five-year overall survival was 43%.
Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14:4850-4858.