University of Queensland researchers have achieved encouraging preliminary results during early phase human clinical trials of a new melanoma vaccine.
The vaccine targets patients who have reached late stage cancer, when tumours have spread to organs such as skin, lymph nodes, liver and lungs.
'Small scale trials of patients with advanced disease achieved results equal to, or better than conventional chemotherapy without the toxicity,' Dr Ranjeny Thomas said.
Dr Thomas is a speaker today at the Australian Biotechnology Association 2000 conference at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
She is Deputy-Director of the University's Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research (CICR) at Princess Alexandra Hospital. Dr Thomas also leads the Centre's Dendritic Cell Group which is using a vaccine based on naturally occurring human cells known as dendritic cells.
Dendritic cells are potent, antigen-presenting cells with the unique capacity to prime the human immune response. When given as a vaccine in combination with tumour cell antigens, dendritic cells re-educate the immune system, so that killer T-cells will recognise and destroy tumour cells expressing these antigens.
'Dendritic cells have been dubbed ?nature's adjuvant' because of their unique capacity to stimulate the human immune response,' Dr Thomas said.
Dr Thomas said many research groups internationally were exploring the properties of dendritic cells, but with considerably different scientific approaches. The UQ group uses immature cells grown from the blood that migrate to the lymph nodes, after injection into the skin. Lymph nodes are the immune's system nerve centre for educating T-cells.
The melanoma antigen in the new vaccine is made up of peptides derived from tumour tissue removed surgically from each patient. Peptides bind to the molecular surface of the dendritic cells to do their work. The clinical trials have several components, including studies of the dendritic cell migration to the lymph nodes, patients' immune responses to the vaccine, and side effects.
The group is currently working on several modifications to the vaccine in the test tube. They hope that this will improve the efficiency of the vaccine when trialled in patients with melanoma.
The project has attracted $104,000 National Health and Medical Research Council funding over three years for these studies.
For further information, contact Dr Ranjeny Thomas, telephone 07 3240 5365, mobile 0411 649 139, email rthomas@medicine.pa.uq.edu.au or Jan King at UQ Communications 0413 601 248.
