Tumor Immunotherapy

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among men and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men. Curative therapy is available for cancer localized to the prostate, however, no curative treatments exist for metastatic prostate cancer lesions. Methods to prevent prostate cancer are also unavailable. Immunotherapy harnesses the great sensitivity and specificity of the immune system and may offer ways to prevent prostate cancer as well as attack metastases. We study prostate cancer in the C57Bl/6 mouse and use an aggressive, non-immunogenic prostate cancer cell line called RM-1. We have developed whole tumor cell vaccines which combine the RM-1 cancer cells with canary pox viruses that encode cytokines (IL-2, IL-12, and TNF-alpha). Our goal is to use the whole tumor cell vaccines to induce a T cell response that will protect the mice upon rechallenge. Recent experiments indicate that the route of vaccine delivery is important.

Grant JF, Iwasawa T, Sinn HW, Siemens DR, Griffith TS, Takacs EB, Ratliff TL. Induction of protective immunity to RM-1 prostate cancer cells with ALVAC-IL-2/IL-12/TNF-alpha combination therapy. Int J Cancer. 2006 Dec 1;119(11):2632-41. PubMed PMID: 16991124.

Elzey BD, Grant JF, Sinn HW, Nieswandt B, Waldschmidt TJ, Ratliff TL. Cooperation between platelet-derived CD154 and CD4+ T cells for enhanced germinal center formation. J Leukoc Biol. 2005 Jul;78(1):80-4. Epub 2005 May 17. PubMed PMID: 15899982.