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© 2000 American Society for Clinical Oncology Clinical and Immune Responses in Advanced Melanoma Patients Immunized With an Anti-Idiotype Antibody Mimicking Disialoganglioside GD2From the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Barrett Cancer Center for Prevention, Treatment and Research, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Oncology-Hematology Care, Inc, Cincinnati, OH; Mount Sinai Cancer Center, Miami, FL; Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, and Lucille Parker Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, KY; Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Arkansas School of Medicine, Little Rock, AK; Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc, South San Francisco, CA; Aquila Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, Framingham, MA; and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Address reprint requests to Kenneth A. Foon, MD, Barrett Cancer Center, 234 Goodman St, ML 0502, Suite 1091, Cincinnati, OH 45219-2316; email kenneth.foon{at}uc.edu
PURPOSE: To determine immune responses and toxicity to the anti-idiotype vaccine, as well as clinical responses and survival, we initiated a clinical trial for patients with advanced melanoma treated with an anti-idiotype antibody (TriGem) that mimics the disialoganglioside GD2. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-seven patients with advanced melanoma received either 1-, 2-, 4-, or 8-mg doses of TriGem (Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc, South San Francisco, CA) mixed with QS-21 adjuvant (Aquila Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, Worcester, MA) 100 µg subcutaneously weekly for 4 weeks and then monthly until disease progression. Median age was 57 years, there were 32 men and 15 women, 43% of patients had undergone prior therapy for metastatic disease, 55% had disease confined to soft tissue, and 45% had visceral metastasis. RESULTS: Hyperimmune sera from 40 of 47 patients showed an antianti-idiotype (Ab3) response. Patient Ab3 was truly Ab1' because it specifically bound purified disialoganglioside GD2. The isotypic specificity of the Ab3 antibody consisted of predominantly immunoglobulin (Ig)G, and all IgG subclasses were represented. One patient had a complete response that persisted at 24 months, and 12 patients were stable from 14+ to 37+ months (median, 18+ months). Disease progression occurred in 32 patients on study from 1 to 17 months (median, 5.5 months), and 21 have died at 1 to 16 months (median, 6 months). The Kaplan-Meierderived overall median survival has not been reached. Median survival has not been reached for the 26 patients with soft tissue disease only and was 13 months for 21 patients with visceral metastasis. Toxicity consisted of local reaction at the site of injection and mild fever and chills. CONCLUSION: TriGem has minimal toxicity and generates robust and specific IgG immune responses against GD2. Objective responses were minimal, but there may be a favorable impact on disease progression and survival that will require prospective randomized trials.
GANGLIOSIDES ARE sialic acidcontaining glycosphingolipids that have increased surface membrane expression on malignant melanoma. There have been a number of immunotherapy studies targeted to gangliosides.1-3 One limitation of vaccination with gangliosides has been the requirement to covalently link the ganglioside to keyhole limpet hemocyanin mixed with a potent adjuvant to produce more potent immunoglobulin (Ig)M and IgG responses.3-5 Another limitation of gangliosides is their expensive and difficult purification process. An alternate approach to the natural ganglioside is the generation of anti-idiotype antibodies that mimic the ganglioside. The idiotype network hypothesis of Lindenmann6 and Jerne7 offers an elegant approach to transforming epitope structures into idiotypic determinants expressed on the surface of antibodies. According to the network concept, immunization with a given tumor-associated antigen (TAA) will generate production of antibodies against this TAA that are termed Ab1. Ab1 are then used to generate a series of anti-idiotype antibodies against the Ab1, termed Ab2. Some of these Ab2 molecules can effectively mimic the three-dimensional structure of the TAA identified by the Ab1. These particular antibodies, called Ab2-beta (ß), fit into the paratopes of Ab1 and express the internal image of the TAA. The Ab2ß can induce specific immune responses similar to those induced by the original TAA and can therefore be used as surrogate TAAs. Immunization with Ab2 can lead to the generation of antianti-idiotypic antibodies (Ab3) that recognize the corresponding original TAA identified by the Ab1. Because of this Ab1-like reactivity, the Ab3 is also called Ab1' to indicate that it might differ in its other idiotopes from Ab1. One such anti-idiotype antibody, BEC-2, which mimics disialoganglioside GD3, is currently being investigated in clinical trials.8,9 We have been interested in the anti-idiotype approach to a number of antigens10-14 and have generated an anti-idiotype antibody, designated TriGem, that mimics disialoganglioside GD2,15,16 which, similar to GM2, is highly expressed on melanoma and other neuroectodermal tumors with only minimal expression on normal tissues. We previously reported on the first 12 patients in this trial17 and now report the final results of 47 patients with advanced melanoma vaccinated with TriGem mixed with the QS-21 adjuvant.
Patients and Treatment Schedule All 47 patients had American Joint Committee on Cancer stage IV melanoma with measurable metastatic disease (Table 1). Twenty patients had prior radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and/or biotherapy for metastatic disease. Patient requirements included a life expectancy of 5 months, discontinuation of all prior therapy for at least 4 weeks, hemoglobin concentration more than 10.5 g/dL, renal and liver function less than 1.5 times upper limits of normal, and no concurrent corticosteroid drug administration. All patients were treated subcutaneously with either 1, 2, 4, or 8 mg of TriGem mixed with 100 µg of QS-21 (Aquila Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, Framingham, MA). Patients treated with 8 mg were given two separate injections at each vaccination because of the larger volume. The vaccine was injected subcutaneously every other week for four injections followed by monthly injections. Patients were evaluated for disease progression at the end of the fourth injection and every 3 months thereafter. Vaccination was discontinued at the time of disease progression, and patients were removed from the study. All patients signed informed consent forms approved by the respective institutional review boards.
Cell Lines The mouse thymoma cell line EL-4, the human melanoma cell line M21/P6, and the human colorectal cancerderived cell line LS174-T were grown in Dulbeccos modified Eagles medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 2 mmol/L L-glutamine, 100 U/mL penicillin (GIBCO, Grand Island, NY), and 100 µg/mL streptomycin (GIBCO). EL-4 and M21/P6 cells, which express GD2 on their cell surface membrane, were used as positive controls, and LS174-T-cells, which are GD2-negative, served as negative controls.
Generation of Anti-Idiotype Antibody for the Clinical Trial
Adjuvant
Assay for Humoral Immunity
Inhibition of Ab2 Binding to Ab1
Immune Flow Cytometric Analysis With Ab1 and Patients Ab3 Serum
Purification of AntiAnti-Idiotypic Antibodies (Ab3) From Hyperimmunized Patients Sera
Determination of Ig Isotypes and Subclasses
GD2-Binding Inhibition Assay
Binding of Ab3 to Purified GD2 and GD3
Clinical Results Forty-seven patients were entered onto the trial. There were 32 men and 15 women; 26 patients had disease confined to soft tissue and 21 had visceral metastasis. Six of these patients had visceral disease confined to the lungs. Among the 47, there were 20 who had received prior treatment with chemotherapy, hormone therapy, biologic therapy, or radiation therapy for metastatic disease. One patient with multiple sites of soft tissue metastases achieved a complete response after the ninth treatment with TriGem and remained in complete remission at 24 months, and 12 patients have continued on trial with stable disease from 14+ to 37+ months (median, 18+ months). Among the patients who continue with stable disease, seven have soft tissue disease only, one has disease localized to the sinus cavity, and four have multiple visceral metastasis, including bone, brain, lung, and gastrointestinal tract. Thirty-two patients have experienced disease progression on study from 1 to 17 months (median, 5.5 months), and 21 have died on study from 1 to 16 months (median, 6 months). The Kaplan-Meierderived overall median survival for all 47 patients was not reached but is at least 16 months (Fig 1). For 26 patients with soft tissue metastasis, the median survival was not reached (Fig 2, upper curve). For 21 patients with visceral metastasis, the median survival duration was 13 months (Fig 2, lower curve).
Toxicity Side effects were limited to local swelling at the site of injection, sometimes associated with mild fever and chills. There were no grade 3 or 4 toxicities, and none of the patients was removed from study because of toxicity.
Humoral Immune Responses
All of the patients who continued on study beyond 3 months (40 of 47) generated anti-disialoganglioside GD2 antibody responses. These responses were quantitated in 20 patients and ranged from 34 to 240 µg/mL. The responses were predominately IgG, and all subclasses of IgG were represented. This differs significantly from other anti-idiotype antibody vaccines for malignant melanoma, where high-titer IgG immune responses were not demonstrated.8,9,19-22 In addition, the IgG antibodies from our patients mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity.15 We found no major differences in the immune responses of patients with stable disease versus those whose disease progressed, although higher anti-GD2 IgM levels were noted in some patients with disease progression. However, the higher IgM levels did not reflect lower IgG levels; in fact, patients with higher IgM levels also had the highest anti-GD2 IgG levels. In a previously reported study, patients were treated with a polyvalent melanoma vaccine after surgical resection of the primary tumor.23 These investigators reported that improved survival was correlated with high anti-TA90 IgM titers and delayed hypersensitivity to the polyvalent vaccine. Forty of 47 patients in the current study and all patients treated with TriGem in the adjuvant setting (data not shown) have generated high-titer anti-GD2 IgG responses. We believe that potent anti-GD2 IgG responses are critical to a favorable clinical outcome. However, it is not likely that we will be able to predict clinical outcome by measuring anti-GD2 IgG levels alone because nearly all of the patients generated high levels. Possibly, other immune factors that have not yet been identified will impact on survival. In previous studies that used infusional therapy of murine or humanized antibodies that bind to the disialoganglioside GD2, severe gastrointestinal toxicity as well as extremity pain and neurologic toxicity was reported.24,25 One explanation for gastrointestinal toxicity was the expression of the GD2 ganglioside on neural tissue. Fortunately, we did not observe gastrointestinal or neural toxicity in any patients treated on this trial. Patients were immunized monthly and continued to generate high-titer anti-disialoganglioside GD2 polyclonal antibody responses as long as they continued on study.
Twenty of the 47 patients entered onto the trial had received prior therapy with either chemotherapy drugs, biotherapy, hormonal therapy, or radiation therapy for metastatic disease. One patient achieved a complete response after the ninth injection of TriGem, and 12 patients remained stable on study from 14 to 37+ months (median, 18+ months). The complete responder had multiple soft tissue sites of metastases and has remained in complete remission for 24 months. The Kaplan-Meierderived overall median survival duration for the 47 patients was not reached but is at least 16 months. This median survival duration is superior to those reported from other phase II trials in which the expected survival durations are typically in the range of 5 to 10 months. Combination therapies of interferon and interleukin-2 with or without cisplatin have reported survival durations in the range of 9 months.26 Similarly, combination chemotherapy with dacarbazine and cisplatin with or without tamoxifen has demonstrated overall median survival durations in the range of 9 months.27 In another trial, median survival duration was 16 months with cisplatin, dacarbazine, and tamoxifen, and survival duration was 11 months with the addition of interleukin-2 and interferon-
Supported by grant no. R01CA-72018-02 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
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Copyright © 2000 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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