| The following article features coverage from the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2020 meeting. Click here to read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s conference coverage. |
Administration of a vaccine consisting of autologous dendritic cells (DCs) incubated with autologous tumor antigens (ATAs) was feasible to produce and well tolerated among patients with glioblastoma, according to the results of a phase 2 study presented at the virtual Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 35th Anniversary Annual Meeting & Preconference Programs (SITC 2020).
Glioblastoma is associated with poor outcomes, despite standard treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of administering autologous DCs that had been exposed to ATAs in this population.
The phase 1 trial included 60 patients with glioblastoma who had undergone surgery and concurrent temozolomide and radiation therapy. Tumor cell lines were created from each patient’s tumor tissue, while each patient’s DCs were collected from peripheral blood and isolated. DCs were incubated with the lysate of irradiated glioblastoma cells. The autologous DCs were then injected back into the patient after recovery from concurrent temozolomide and radiation therapy.
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At baseline, the median age of the patients was 59 years, and 30% were female. MGMT methylation was present in 22% of patients, with another 27% unknown. IDH mutation was present in 12% of patients and IDH status was unknown in 5%.
Autologous DCs were well tolerated, with the most common adverse event (AE) being injection site reactions. There were 54 serious AEs, none of which were attributed to the autologous DCs.
The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 10 months, with a rate of 69% at 7 months. The median overall survival (OS) was 10.5 months with a rate of 72% at 12 months. There were 15 patients who survived for at least 14.6 months.
Historical 7-month PFS rate is 50% and 12-month OS rate is 61%.
The authors concluded that glioblastoma dendritic cell–tumor antigen (DC-ATA) vaccines are both feasible to produce and well tolerated by patients.
Read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s coverage of the SITC 2020 meeting by visiting the conference page.
Reference
Bota DA, Piccioni DE, Duma CD, et al. Phase II trial of immunotherapy in primary glioblastoma: antigens from self-renewing autologous tumor cells presented by autologous dendritic cell vaccine. Presented at: Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 35th Anniversary Annual Meeting & Preconference Programs (SITC 2020); November 11-14, 2020. Abstract 319. J Immunother Cancer. 2020;8(Suppl 3):A656–A959.
