Cancer Vaccine Therapy as Tumor Dormancy Therapy against Advamced Digestive Tract Cancer

Yuji Ueda, Tsuyoshi Itoh, Kaori Okugawa, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Nobuaki Fuji, Tetsunori Yoshimura, Tetsuro Yamashita, Hiroshi Fujiki, Sachio Harada and Hisakazu Yamagishi

Department of Digestive Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine

Cancer vaccine therapy using monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DC) and HLA-A2402 restricted carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) -derived peptide (CEA652) has been applied in advanced digestive tract and lung adenocarcinoma patients resistant to conventional chemopthearapy or radiotherapy since October 1998 at our institute. Subjects were 10 patients with colo-rectal cancer, 2 with gastric cancer, and 3 with lung cancer. CEA652 pulsed DC vaccine was administered to patients once enery 2 weeks in the inguinal skin at least 5 times. After therapy, 6 to the 15 showed decreased serum CEA or inhibited serum CEA increase (effective cases). In effective cases, patients tended to survive longer compared than in non-effective cases. 57-year-old female rectal cancer patient with right adrenal gland and multiple lung metastases has survived 18 months since the beginning of the vaccine therapy without significant tumor progression. This suggests that cancer vaccine therapy using CEA652 pulsed DC induce tumor dormancy in some advanced solid cancer patients resiatant to conventional therapy. In future, this therapy should be applied to prevent cancer recurrence in minimally residual disease after surgery or chemotherapy.

Key words
cancer vaccine therapy, tumor dormancy therapy, carcinoembryonic antigen

Reprint requests
Yuji Ueda Department of Digestive Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine 465 Kajiicho, Kawaramachi, Kamigyoku, Kyoto, 602-8566 JAPAN

Accepted
December 19, 2000

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