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Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 20, Issue 20 (October), 2002: 4169-4180
© 2002 American Society for Clinical Oncology

Vaccination of Metastatic Melanoma Patients With Autologous Tumor-Derived Heat Shock Protein gp96-Peptide Complexes: Clinical and Immunologic Findings

By Filiberto Belli, Alessandro Testori, Licia Rivoltini, Michele Maio, Giovanna Andreola, Mario Roberto Sertoli, Gianfrancesco Gallino, Adriano Piris, Alessandro Cattelan, Ivano Lazzari, Matteo Carrabba, Giorgio Scita, Cristina Santantonio, Lorenzo Pilla, Gabrina Tragni, Claudia Lombardo, Flavio Arienti, Alfonso Marchianò, Paola Queirolo, Francesco Bertolini, Agata Cova, Elda Lamaj, Lucio Ascani, Roberto Camerini, Marco Corsi, Natale Cascinelli, Jonathan J. Lewis, Pramod Srivastava, Giorgio Parmiani

From the Units of General Surgery 2, Immunotherapy of Human Tumors, Immunohematology and Blood Bank, Pathology, Diagnostic Radiology, and Pharmacy, Istituto Nazionale Tumori; Divisions of Surgery and Pathology, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milan; Units of Cancer Biotherapy, Anesthesiology, and Surgery, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Aviano; Divisions of Medical Oncology and Surgery, Istituto Scientifico Tumori, Genoa; and Sigma Tau, i.f.r. S.p.A., Rome, Italy; Antigenics, Inc, Woburn, MA; and Center for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Infectious Diseases, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT.

Address reprint requests to Giorgio Parmiani, MD, Unit of Immunotherapy of Human Tumors, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Via Venezian, 1-20133 Milan, Italy; email: parmiani{at}istitutotumori.mi.it


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 PATIENTS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
PURPOSE: To determine the immunogenicity and antitumor activity of a vaccine consisting of autologous, tumor-derived heat shock protein gp96-peptide complexes (HSPPC-96, Oncophage; Antigenics, Inc, Woburn, MA) in metastatic (American Joint Committee on Cancer stage IV) melanoma patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-four patients had surgical resection of metastatic tissue required for vaccine production, 42 patients were able to receive the vaccine, and 39 were assessable after one cycle of vaccination (four weekly injections). In 21 patients, a second cycle (four biweekly injections) was given because no progression occurred. Antigen-specific antimelanoma T-cell response was assessed by enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained before and after vaccination. Immunohistochemical analyses of tumor tissues were also performed.

RESULTS: No treatment-related toxicity was observed. Of 28 patients with measurable disease, two had a complete response (CR) and three had stable disease (SD) at the end of follow-up. Duration of CR was 559+ and 703+ days, whereas SD lasted for 153, 191, and 272 days, respectively. ELISPOT assay with PBMCs of 23 subjects showed a significantly increased number of postvaccination melanoma-specific T-cell spots in 11 patients, with clinical responders displaying a high frequency of increased T-cell activity. Immunohistochemical staining of melanoma tissues from which vaccine was produced revealed high expression of both HLA class I and melanoma antigens in seven of eight clinical responders (two with CR, three with SD, and the three with long-term disease-free survival) and in four of 12 nonresponders.

CONCLUSION: Vaccination of metastatic melanoma patients with autologous HSPPC-96 is feasible and devoid of significant toxicity. This vaccine induced clinical and tumor-specific T-cell responses in a significant minority of patients.


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 PATIENTS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
NO EFFECTIVE THERAPY for metastatic melanoma is currently available. Several phase II studies of biochemotherapy have reported 40% to 50% clinical response rates.1 Recently, one2 but not another3 phase III trial confirmed a significantly higher response rate of biochemotherapy as compared with chemotherapy alone.2 However, these treatments were associated with high toxicity and did not result in concurrent improvement in overall survival.2,3 Several vaccine approaches have been tested. Most recently, patients have been vaccinated with peptides (with or without adjuvants, or pulsed on autologous dendritic cells) derived from proteins expressed by melanoma cells. The clinical response rate in these studies has ranged between 5% and 30%.4-6 In one trial where patients received concurrent administration of high-dose interleukin-2,7 a response rate of 42% was achieved. In virtually all of these studies, complete responses are rare and, with an exception,5 of short duration, frequently less than 6 months. As another approach, the use of gene-modified autologous or allogeneic melanoma cell vaccines has resulted in response rates of 10% to 20%.8 In many trials, patients have been monitored for tumor-specific T-cell responses to vaccination by a variety of assays. Such immunologic responses have been usually detected in a low percentage of patients, and when they have been detected, no correlation between immunologic responses and clinical outcomes has been observed.5,7,9

In this study, we have immunized melanoma patients with vaccines consisting of heat shock protein-peptide complexes. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are the most common and abundant proteins in all forms of life. They come in different families characterized by members of similar molecular mass (such as hsp70 and hsp90). Previous work has demonstrated that purified, apparently homogeneous preparations of gp96, hsp70, hsp90, and certain other HSPs are actually noncovalent complexes of HSPs and peptides (see Srivastava10). The peptides are derived from the proteins expressed in the cells from which the HSPs are purified and include normal self-peptides and antigenic peptides. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in mouse11,12 and human tumors.13 In the latter, hsp70-peptide complexes extracted from melanoma cells have been found to contain well-known peptides on the basis of their ability to stimulate antigen-specific CD8+ T cells from melanoma patients’ peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).13 Vaccination with autologous tumor-derived HSP-peptide complexes has been shown to result in both prophylactic and therapeutic antitumor activity in multiple animal tumor models in multiple genera.14,15 Furthermore, a pilot clinical study of vaccination with HSP peptide complex-96 (HSPPC-96) isolated from autologous nonmelanoma tumors suggests that a specific antitumor immunity can be generated, even in advanced cancer patients.16

The immunogenicity of tumor-derived HSP-peptide complexes, like the immunogenicity of experimentally induced tumors of mice and rats, has been shown to be individually tumor specific and not tumor type specific. These observations have led to the conclusion that the relevant tumor-antigenic, immunoprotective peptides are derived from unique rather than shared tumor antigens.17 This is the basis of the vaccination protocol in this study, where each patient is vaccinated with HSP-peptide complexes isolated from his or her own tumor. In the present study, we have evaluated whether vaccination with autologous, tumor-derived HSPPC-96 (Oncophage; Antigenics, Inc, Woburn, MA) is feasible and safe, and whether such vaccination elicits immunologic and/or clinical response in the autologous host.


    PATIENTS AND METHODS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 PATIENTS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Patients and Treatment
Between February 1999 and January 2000, 64 stage IV (American Joint Committee on Cancer) metastatic melanoma patients were enrolled on the study and had surgical resection of tumor tissue for vaccine production. Patients were enrolled at four Italian centers: the Istituto Nazionale Tumori (n = 32) and the European Institute of Oncology of Milan (n = 21), the Regional Center of Oncology of Aviano (n = 7), and the Scientific Institute of Tumors of Genoa (n = 6). Of these patients, 39 received at least one cycle of vaccination, and were assessable. Eligibility criteria for vaccination included the following: (1) histologically verified melanoma with resectability of at least one lesion that was able to provide the necessary amount of nonnecrotic neoplastic tissue (3 g for vaccine preparation and 1 g for immunologic assays); (2) a performance status (Zubrod) of 2 or less; (3) life expectancy of at least 20 weeks; (4) normal WBC and platelet counts, and hemoglobin level greater than 10 g/L; (5) bilirubin less than 1.5 times normal, ALT less than four times normal, and adequate renal function with serum creatinine of less than two times normal; (6) fully recovered from prior anticancer therapy with at least a 4-week interval from the last administration of prior anticancer treatment; and (7) a positive response to recall antigens (Multitest Mérieux; Imtix, Milan, Italy) as a sign of sufficient immune function.

All patients underwent clinical and radiographic staging before treatment. Patients were excluded from the study if they had active brain metastases, had concomitant autoimmune or malignant diseases or were receiving concurrent anticancer therapy, required steroid drugs, or had a history of serious intercurrent medical illnesses. Women of childbearing potential required a negative serum pregnancy test before entry onto the study and agreed to use an effective method of contraception while on treatment. All patients gave written informed consent to participate in the study.

The clinical protocol was approved by the Internal Scientific Review Board and by the Independent Ethics Committee of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan and of the other participating centers. Patients were vaccinated with autologous HSPPC-96 starting 5 to 8 weeks after resection of tumor metastases with 5 or 50 µg of vaccine given at weekly intervals either intradermally or subcutaneously. Patients were randomly assigned to either dose or route of administration of the vaccine. After four vaccinations (first cycle), and if no progression occurred, patients could receive four additional injections once every 2 weeks (second cycle) if vaccine was available. This occurred in 21 patients; in addition, four patients (02-007, 02-021, 03-003, and 03-005) underwent two to three additional monthly immunizations of HSPPC-96 as a third cycle of vaccination.

Patients were monitored for toxicity, including complete clinical evaluation, standard blood tests including differential blood counts, serum chemistry, urinalysis, cardiac, liver and renal functions, and autoimmune reactions (antimicrosomal and antithyroglobulin antibodies, T3, free T4, rheumatic factor, and antinucleoprotein and antimitochondrial antibodies). Ophthalmologic examinations were carried out at 4, 8, and 12 weeks to assess possible autoimmune reactions caused by melanoma/retina cross-reacting differentiation antigens.

Tumor evaluation was performed before resection of metastatic melanoma, at the pretreatment visit (baseline evaluation or visit 1 [V1]), at weeks 4 and 8 of the study, and thereafter every 3 months and as indicated. This was by the same sequential diagnostic imaging method. The size of tumor lesions was evaluated as the product of the largest perpendicular diameters of the lesion and recorded. Clinical responses were defined as less than progressive disease, which spans the spectrum from stable disease (SD) to complete response (CR). Disease-free survival (DFS) was measured from the day of onset of vaccination until relapse in patients that were rendered disease-free by surgery.

Preparation of Vaccine
Autologous HSPPC-96 vaccine was prepared from tumor samples of each patient as reported for mouse tumors.18 Briefly, macroscopically nonnecrotic tumor tissue was obtained under sterile conditions from the operating room, weighed, and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. It was shipped to Antigenics and processed under good manufacturing practice conditions. Preparations were considered to be of acceptable quality only if all of the following three conditions were met: (1) the major protein band on sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was 96 kDa; (2) this band could be immunoblotted with an anti-gp96 monoclonal antibody (mAb); and (3) the preparations were sterile and their endotoxin levels were within the levels approved by the Food and Drug Administration. All the preparations used to vaccinate patients met these criteria.

Evaluation of Immune Response
HLA typing. Serologic typing for HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C was performed by the standard two-stage complement-dependent microcytotoxicity test. For molecular typing, genomic DNA was purified from protease-treated PBMCs with QIAamp DNA kit (Qiagen, Germany), and HLA typing was performed by amplification with sequence-specific primers (Dynal, Bromborough, United Kingdom).

Skin response (delayed-type hypersensitivity). Skin reaction at the site of vaccination was assessed 1 hour after every injection by the attending physician and after 24 and 48 hours by the patient on instruction. Delayed-type hypersensitivity was carried out by subcutaneous injection of 3 x 104 or 10 x 105 autologous tumor cells (when available) derived from melanoma lesions by mechanical processing. Tumor cells were then irradiated (150 Gy) and tested for sterility by routine microbiologic assays. Cell suspensions were aliquoted, stored in liquid nitrogen, and thawed before injection. Autologous irradiated (50 Gy) and autologous PBMCs, obtained from the blood by Ficoll (Pharmacia Biosystems, Uppsala, Sweden) gradient, were also injected as negative control immediately before the first, fourth, and fifth vaccinations.

Eighty to 100 mL of heparinized blood for immunologic assays was obtained by preparation of a buffy coat from each patient before vaccination (V1) and at V5 (fourth vaccination) and V6 (4 weeks afterward). In patients who received additional vaccinations, blood was obtained also at V7, V9, V10, or V11. The PBMCs were isolated by Ficoll gradient centrifugation and frozen in aliquots in liquid nitrogen. The following tests were performed at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori for all patients to assess their melanoma-specific immune response. PBMCs of only 23 subjects could be analyzed in part for lack of availability of PBMCs, and in part for the lack of appropriate melanoma cell target because of the rare HLA allele of patients.

Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay
The enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay allows the direct testing of antigen recognition by patients’ T cells and has been used in melanoma patients vaccinated with different peptides.19-21 Blocking experiments were performed by preincubating target cells for 30 minutes at 37°C with the anti–class I HLA antibody W6.32 or the anti–class II HLA antibody L243. To see whether HSPPC-96 could stimulate PBMCs, autologous monocytes were separated from PBMCs by overnight adherence in 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) RPMI 1640 at 37°C, recovered by mechanical removal, and incubated for 2 hours at 37°C with 2 µg/mL autologous tumor-derived HSPPC-96 (from the same preparations used for the vaccine). Monocytes were then directly used as target in ELISPOT assay with or without previous incubation with W6.32 or L243 mAb for 30 minutes on ice. As effectors, nonadherent cells from autologous PBMCs obtained either before (V1) or after (V5) vaccination were used.

To control the ELISPOT assay, the anti-Melan-A/MART-127-35 cytotoxic T-lymphocyte clone A4222 in the presence or absence of relevant targets (T2 cells pulsed with Melan-A/MART-127-35 peptide and the Melan-A/MART-127-35+ melanoma line 501mel) was always included at the concentration of 400 cells/well. The HLA-A2+ lymphoblastoid cell line T2 carries a TAP mutation, which prevents endogenous peptide presentation but allows external peptides to be presented by its class I HLA empty molecules. After an additional incubation for 20 hours at 37°C and 5% CO2, plates were washed with filtered phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Wells were then incubated for 2 to 4 hours at room temperature with 50 µL/well of biotinylated mouse antihuman interferon gamma (IFN-{gamma}) mAb (Mabtech, Nacka, Sweden) at the concentration of 1 µg/mL in filtered PBS with 0.5% FCS. Wells were then washed with PBS and 100 µL/well of streptavidin alkaline phosphatase (Mabtech) diluted 1:1,000 in filtered PBS–0.5% FCS was then added. After 1 hour incubation at room temperature, plates were washed extensively and 100 µL/well of substrate (BioRad, Hercules, CA) was added. Color development was stopped by washing in tap water when dark spots emerged (up to 30 minutes). Plates were then left to dry overnight at room temperature and spots were counted by a computer-assisted ELISPOT reader (Bioline, AID, Torino, Italy). For HLA-blocking experiments, PBMCs were thawed 18 hours before their use and depleted from monocytes by overnight adherence in 10% FCS RPMI 1640 at 37°C; nonadherent cells were used as effectors at 2 x 105 cells/well. Autologous or allogeneic HLA-matched melanoma cells or HSPPC-96/pulsed monocytes were preincubated with either W6.32 or L243 antibodies for 30 minutes on ice and used as targets (2 x 104 cells/well).

Indicated spot numbers per seeded PBMCs represent mean values of three or six replicates. To calculate the number of PBMCs responding to the antigen (tumor cells, peptide or HSPPC-96/pulsed monocytes or T2 cells) by IFN-{gamma} release, a background was subtracted. Background was estimated according to the various combination of stimulator and responder. When tumor cells were used for stimulation, background was the number of IFN-{gamma} spots associated with PBMC responders alone. For the ELISPOT assay with HSPPC-96/pulsed monocytes, background subtracted was also the spots of PBMCs alone, whereas the background of monocytes alone is indicated in Fig 2. For statistical evaluation, a Student’s t test for unpaired samples was used to compare prevaccine and postvaccine spots of the same patient. Values of P < .05 were considered as significant.



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Fig 2. Re-presentation of gp96-chaperoned peptides by autologous monocytes to PBMCs (before and after vaccination) in two patients. Med, medium (negative control); Med 1, effector lymphocytes only; Med 2, autologous monocytes and effector lymphocytes without HSPPC-96.

 
Melanoma and Other Cells or Cell Lines
Tumor cell suspensions were obtained by mechanical processing of melanoma lesions. Enzymatic digestion with a pool of DNAse I, collagenase type IV (1 µg/mL) (Biowhittaker Europe, Belgium), hyaluronidase type IV (Sigma) (1 µg/mL), and trypsin-EDTA (Biowhittaker) was performed in some cases to achieve higher cell recovery. Tumor cells were then aliquoted, frozen, and stored in liquid nitrogen. Melanoma cells expressing different HLA alleles and used as targets in the ELISPOT assay were derived from patients accrued onto the study. In addition, the melanoma lines 501mel and 624.38mel were used as HLA-A2+ target cells,22 whereas Me15932 was used as an HLA-A3+ tumor cell line.23 The colon carcinoma cell line Colo206, expressing both HLA-A2 and HLA-A1 alleles, was a gift from C. Scheibenbogen, MD (B. Franklyn University, Berlin). Tumor cell lines were maintained in RPMI 1640 with 10% FCS unless otherwise indicated.

Immunopathology of the Resected Melanoma Metastases
Routine histologic diagnosis was performed for all tumor samples used for vaccine production. In addition, histologic and immunohistochemical evaluation was performed in 21 of the 39 assessable patients at the time of tumor procurement for vaccine preparation. Classification of the metastatic foci on the basis of the "brisk/nonbrisk" system for tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes24,25 was performed on routine hematoxylin and eosin–stained slides. In addition, this was correlated with immunohistochemical analysis using the routine immunoperoxidase technique. Tissue sections (1 to 2 µm thick) were stained with the following antibodies: CD3 and CD4 (Novocastra Labs, Newcastle on Tyne, United Kingdom); CD8 (DAKO A/S, Glostrup, Denmark); CD45RO (clone UCHL1, DAKO A/S); CD56 NCAM (Sigma); HMB45 (DAKO A/S); S-100 (DAKO A/S); Melan-A/MART-1 (clone A103, Novocastra Labs); HLA-DR (clone LN3, Biotest AG, Dreieich, Germany); the anti–HLA-A,-B,-C framework mAb HC-10 (kindly provided by Soldano Ferrone, MD, Roswell Park Institute, Buffalo, NY). Tissue sections subjected to the same treatment but without incubation with primary mAb were used as negative controls. Positive controls were a reactive lymph node for the lymphocyte markers and for HLA-DR and HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C. Previously well-documented melanoma cases were used as positive controls for the melanoma antigens. If all tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were of T phenotype, the CD3+ population was considered to be 100%. This was used as a baseline for a semiquantitative count of CD4, CD8, and CD45 cells that were estimated as a percentage of the CD3+ counterparts. HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C and melanoma antigens (gp100 or Melan-A/MART-1) were arbitrarily considered as downregulated when less than 20% of tumor cells were positive and highly expressed when at least 50% of tumor cells were positive after staining with the given antibody.


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 PATIENTS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Patients and Vaccination
Of 64 patients (Table 1 lists demographics and clinical data) who underwent surgery for removal of melanoma lesions, 39 received one (n = 18) or two (n = 21) complete cycles of vaccination. Others (n = 25) did not receive a complete cycle of vaccination for reasons listed in Table 2. Of the 39 patients who completed one or two cycles of vaccination, 26 were heavily pretreated with a variety of systemic treatments (Table 1). Others (n = 13) underwent surgery alone. Classified by another parameter, 28 patients had residual measurable disease after surgery and 11 were rendered disease-free (Table 1). As mentioned in Patients and Methods, patients were randomized onto 5 or 50 µg HSPPC-96 per vaccination and onto intradermal and subcutaneous vaccination groups.


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Table 1. Characteristics of Assessable Metastatic Melanoma Patients
 

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Table 2. Frequency and Causes of Dropout Occurring During Vaccine Production and Before the Conclusion of the First Vaccination Cycle of 64 Eligible Melanoma Patients
 
Toxicity
No toxicity attributable to Oncophage was observed in any of the 39 patients, with the exception of small (less than 5 mm) erythemas and/or induration at vaccination sites, all of which disappeared in less than 24 hours and were attributed to the syringe trauma.

Overall Clinical Response
Of the 28 patients with residual measurable disease, there were two with CR and three with SD. The duration of the CRs (as of April 2002) is 24 and 38+ months, and the duration of the SDs is 153, 191, and 272 days, respectively. The median time to progression and median survival time of the 28 patients was 29 and 402 days, respectively.

Of the 11 patients rendered disease-free by surgery, DFS ranged from 29 to 642 days (median, 117 days). Three patients (01-017, 01-019, and 03-003) remained disease-free for 252, 366, and 642 days, respectively. A clear correlation between dose/route and clinical responses could not be discerned.

CRs
Patient 01-007. This patient (a 75-year-old female) had primary melanoma of the right leg resected in August 1997. In January 1998, in-transit metastases were removed and right radical dissection of inguinal lymph nodes was performed. When new cutaneous lesions appeared, she was given IFN-{alpha} and subsequent chemotherapy (cisplatin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) followed by local radiotherapy. Despite treatment, a gradual progression of the cutaneous disease that enveloped most of the lower extremity and abdominal wall occurred. In March 1999, some of the lesions were resected for vaccine production; vaccination with 5 µg of HSPPC-96 subcutaneously was started in May 1999. At that time, the patient displayed multiple cutaneous metastases, single or confluent, different in size, and some with ulceration and bleeding (Fig 1). Two (confluent nodules) were taken as parameter lesions: lesion 1, on the lower third of the leg (5 x 3 cm), and lesion 2, on the internal side of the right knee (12 x 5 cm) (Fig 1A). During immunization, most of the lesions remained stable; 1 month after the last vaccine, all lesions appeared flattened, lighter, and slightly decreased in size (lesion 1, 4.5 x 2 cm; lesion 2, 10 x 2 cm), and no new nodules appeared. In October 1999, two of the lesions were biopsied and no viable tumor cells were found; there were macrophages containing melanotic pigment, and rare lymphocytes and plasma cells. In addition, no visceral disease was detected by computed tomographic (CT) scan. Since then, a further flattening and decrease in size of the metastases was observed, with no appearance of new lesions in other sites (Fig 1B). At the end of January 2002, the skin of tumor-bearing areas appears normal (Fig 1C). The patient has remained disease-free (April 2002) for a total of 38 months.



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Fig 1. Complete regression of multiple cutaneous metastases in the right limb of patient 01-007 after vaccination. (A) Before vaccination (March 1999). (B) Sixteen months after onset of vaccination (October 2000). (C) Thirty-two months after onset of vaccination (January 2002).

 
Patient 02-003. This patient (a 73-year-old female) had resection of a primary melanoma in 1996 and of locoregional recurrence in January 1999. She was then accrued onto a randomized trial and treated for 1 year with intermediate-dose IFN-{alpha}. In May 1999, she developed diffuse subcutaneous, cutaneous, and mucosal metastases. During staging, metastases were detected also in the lung, liver, spleen, and mediastinal and retroperitoneal lymph nodes. None of the metastatic lesions exceeded 2 cm in maximum diameter. In July 1999, surgery was performed to remove some of the larger and more accessible subcutaneous lesions, and vaccine was produced. In September 1999, she began the first cycle of vaccination with 50 µg of HSPPC-96 delivered subcutaneously. At the end of the first cycle (four injections), the patient presented with a clear CT scan of the lung, and all cutaneous and mucosal lesions appeared flattened. The patient completed treatment up to the second cycle (March 2000), as no more vaccine was available; 2 months later, while still in CR, she began a daily treatment with IFN-{alpha} at low dose, which was continued up to January 2001, when it was interrupted because of the patient’s low compliance. At the end of vaccination, two lesions were biopsied and no residual neoplastic cells were present: only S-100+ and CD68+ pigment-rich macrophages were found. CT scans demonstrated the early reduction in size and then the complete disappearance of all the remaining visceral lesions. The patient remained without evidence of disease until May 2001, when she developed a brain metastasis, although no other visceral or cutaneous lesions were evident. She then died in August 2001.

Stable Disease
Three patients (01-010, 01-021, and 03-005) had SD lasting 191, 272, and 153 days, respectively.

Re-presentation of gp96-Chaperoned Melanoma Antigens by Monocytes to Patients’ Lymphocytes
Previous workers have demonstrated that gp96- or hsp70-peptide complexes are taken up by antigen-presenting cells and the peptides are re-presented by the class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of the antigen-presenting cells.10,12,26,27 These class I MHC–peptide complexes can stimulate cognate CD8+ T cells. This observation, first made in the murine system,11 was made in the human system with respect to hsp70-chaperoned peptides.13 We have inquired here whether the human melanoma-derived gp96-peptide complexes are also taken up and re-presented by human monocytes and whether the resulting class I MHC–peptide complexes can stimulate the T cells of the immunized patients. This analysis could be carried out only for two patients because of constraints of availability of HSPPC-96 for testing in vitro. It was observed (Fig 2) that autologous monocytes could re-present gp96-chaperoned peptides to the PBMCs of patients and that PBMCs obtained after vaccination responded (as assessed by ELISPOT assay) more vigorously after vaccination than before vaccination. The stimulation of PBMCs was blocked by the anti–class I HLA (W6.32) but not by an anti–class II HLA (L243) antibody. When colon cancer cell–derived HSPPC-96, instead of the autologous melanoma-derived gp96, was used in the re-presentation assay, no specific recognition was observed, although a background of nonspecific (noninhibitable) recognition, probably mediated by natural killer (NK) cells, could be detected (Fig 2). The increased reaction observed in PBMCs of patient 01-022 after adding W6.32 could be because of masking of class I HLA that can result in increased NK cell lysis of melanoma cells.28 This experiment thus indicates that Oncophage preparations do contain antigens that can effectively stimulate the immune system of melanoma patients.

Immunologic Response in HSPPC-96 Vaccinated Patients: Increased Recognition of Autologous or HLA-A–Matched Allogeneic Melanoma Cells by Patients’ PBMCs
Patients were monitored to determine whether HSPPC-96 vaccine could increase the frequency of melanoma-specific T cells in peripheral blood. Fresh PBMCs were obtained before and at different times after vaccination, and ELISPOT assay for IFN-{gamma} was performed using melanoma cells as targets. Data are reported in Fig 3 as number of positive spots in 1.6 x 105 PBMCs as analyzed in the presence of autologous melanoma cells (either from fresh tumor suspensions or cell lines, when established) or allogeneic HLA-A–matched melanoma lines, when viable tumor cells from autologous lesions were not available. PBMCs from a total of 23 patients were tested at V1 (baseline); at V5 (after the fourth vaccination, first cycle); at V6 (4 weeks later) for patients who received a single cycle of immunization; and in addition at V7, V8, and V10 for patients also receiving the second cycle. Data shown in Fig 3 refer to V1 as prevaccine and mostly to V5 as postvaccine samples. However, in four cases, immunization occurred later during treatment and was detectable at V6 in two subjects and at V7 and V8 in the two other patients, respectively. Despite the known heterogeneity in the baseline antimelanoma reactivity evaluated by ELISPOT,21 11 of 23 subjects tested (47.8%) displayed a statistically significant increase (P < .05 or < .01) in the ability of postvaccination PBMCs to release IFN-{gamma} in response to either autologous or HLA-A–compatible allogeneic melanoma cells, and were considered immunologic responders. These patients included four of four (two with CR and two with SD) clinically responding individuals tested (patients 01-007, 02-003, 01-021, and 01-010), and two of three long-term DFS patients (01-017 and 01-019) (Fig 3). The increase of IFN-{gamma} release of these 11 subjects was detected at least at two time points after vaccination and was additionally observed during the second cycle of vaccination in eight of them. Three patients (01-004, 01-019, and 03-006) experienced a transient boost of tumor recognition detectable only at V5. However, even five of the remaining 16 clinically nonresponding patients (03-006, 01-020, 01-004, 01-022, and 01-025) showed an increased antimelanoma T-cell activity (Fig 3). When autologous tumor cells could be used, the observed increase was additionally detected against one or more HLA-A–matched melanomas, suggesting that immunization might have occurred toward shared tumor-associated antigens (data not shown). To evaluate whether such increased reactivity was directed specifically to melanoma cells, IFN-{gamma} release in response to the HLA-A2+ and HLA-A1+–matched colon carcinoma line Colo206 was analyzed. No increase was evident in the number of postvaccine spots generated by PBMCs as compared to pretreatment samples (data not shown). No differences were found in frequency of immune response in patients who received the vaccine by subcutaneous or intradermal routes or who received 5 v 50 µg of HSPPC-96.



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Fig 3. T-cell–mediated antimelanoma activity of PBMCs of 23 metastatic melanoma patients, as evaluated by ELISPOT assay before and after vaccination. The use of HLA-A–compatible allogeneic melanoma cells is indicated by boxed patients’ number. Statistical significance was assessed by the Student’s t test. *P < .05, **P < .01.

 
As further evidence of antigen-specific T-cell involvement in increased tumor recognition, fresh PBMCs of the 11 immunologically responding patients were tested by ELISPOT with irradiated autologous or HLA-matched melanoma cells in the presence of anti–class I (W6.32) or anti–class II (L243) HLA antibodies. In all cases, T-cell cultures recognized autologous and/or HLA-matched melanoma cells, and such recognition was significantly inhibited with W6.32 but not L243 antibody, indicating an anti–class I HLA-restricted, CD8+-mediated, T-cell recognition of melanoma antigens. For the 11 subjects, the inhibition of spot formation ranged from 40% (patient 01-025) to 93% (patient 02-003), with nine of 11 cases in which inhibition was higher than 60%.

It is of note that the frequency of clinically responding subjects, broadly considered to include also those with SD and long-term DFS, displaying a T-cell response was higher than that of the group of patients whose disease progressed (Table 3). No delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions were detected, as also reported by Janetzki et al16 during vaccination of 12 nonmelanoma patients given autologous HSPPC-96.


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Table 3. Antimelanoma T-Cell–Specific Response* and Clinical Response
 
Immunopathology of the Resected Melanoma Metastases
Among the 21 samples of assessable patients examined, there was a good correlation between the hematoxylin and eosin evaluation and CD3 staining for TILs. In the cases labeled as absent, immunohistochemistry showed either absence of or only rare lymphocytes within the tumor, whereas the brisk cases displayed a diffuse distribution of CD3+ cells (Table 4). In the nonbrisk cases, the TIL population was somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum and were labeled as scattered. In almost all cases (19 of 21), the intratumoral lymphocytes showed a cytotoxic (CD8+) and memory (CD45RO) phenotype. In two cases (01-001 and 01-022), the intratumoral lymphocytes marked only for CD45RO. The remaining two cases (01-027 and 01-006) showed complete absence or few intratumoral lymphocytes. Therefore, a percentage could not be estimated. In the cases where CD4+ cells were seen, they were either at low percentage (20% to 30% of TILs) or the sample was a lymph node, in which case the CD4+ population was interpreted as being part of the "host" lymph node rather than true intratumoral lymphocytes (data not shown). As for melanoma cells, HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C were well expressed (>= 50% positive cells) in 12 patients and downregulated (<= 20% positive cells) in the remaining eight cases. Melan-A/MART-1 was highly expressed (>= 50% positive cells) in 12 cases, with two tumors showing 40% stained cells and the remaining six cases displaying low expression (< 20% positive cells). Tumors of seven of eight clinical responders (including two with CR, three with SD, and three long-term disease-free individuals) showed high expression of HLA class I (70% to 100% positive cells) and either Melan-A/MART-1 or of gp-100 (HMB-45), whereas among the nonresponders, class I HLA was downregulated (<= 20% positive cells) or absent in seven of 12 cases (patient 01-006 was not assessable) (Table 4) and Melan-A/MART-1 and/or gp100 in three of 12 cases examined.


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Table 4. Immunohistochemical Analysis of the Infiltrate of HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, and Melanoma Antigens in Tumor Tissues Used for Vaccine Production in Assessable Patients, and Clinical and Immunologic Response
 

    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 PATIENTS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Our results show that vaccination of metastatic melanoma patients with autologous tumor-derived HSPPC-96 is feasible and well tolerated. In addition, vaccination resulted in some clinical responses apparently associated with T-cell response against melanoma-associated antigens. In the large majority of cases (n = 39), 3 to 4 g of fresh tumor tissue could provide enough HSPPC-96 to vaccinate patients for at least one cycle. Twenty-one of the 39 assessable patients were also given a second cycle of vaccination with four biweekly injections of Oncophage. No treatment-related toxicity (grade I to IV) was found, with the exception of a few instances of local transient erythema caused by injection trauma. Adverse events occurred in six patients, but all were judged to be unrelated to treatment with HSPPC-96.

There were two CRs (patients 01-007 and 02-003), one still in remission 38 months after vaccination and the other recurring after 24 months (as of April 2002). It should be noted, however, that patient 02-003, after 2 months of CR, received low-dose IFN-{alpha} therapy, which might have contributed to this result despite the fact that she had already received IFN-{alpha} without success before starting vaccination. Three additional patients (01-010, 01-021, and 03-005) showed SD for 191, 272, and 153 days, respectively. Moreover, of the 11 patients made disease-free by surgery at the time of vaccine preparation, three (patients 01-019, 01-017, and 03-003) remained disease-free for 642, 366, and 252 days after vaccination, respectively. Altogether, the median survival time of the 28 tumor-bearing patients was 402 days and median time to progression was 29 days. If one arbitrarily considers the three SDs in addition to the two CRs, 17.8% of the 28 metastatic melanoma patients with measurable disease showed a durable clinical response.

We obtained immunologic evidence (in two patients) that the HSPPC-96 used for vaccination contained melanoma-derived antigenic peptides. This was shown through a re-presentation assay13 and is the first demonstration of re-presentation of tumor antigens by gp96 in a human system. Because of the lack of autologous melanoma lines, we could not assess whether recognition of autologous HSPPC-96 in these patients involved unique or shared antigens. Such studies are now ongoing. Evidence for association of HSPs with antigenic peptides has been obtained for a large number of antigens10 including, recently, for HBV-specific epitopes.29

In 11 of 23 cases examined, a class I HLA-restricted immunization likely directed to melanoma antigens was shown to occur after vaccination with HSPPC-96, as evaluated by a significant increase or de novo appearance of IFN-{gamma} release by patients’ PBMCs exposed to autologous or HLA-A–compatible melanoma cells. A similar frequency of ELISPOT responses was reported by Janetzki et al16 in 12 patients with different types of nonmelanoma tumors who were immunized with HSPPC-96. In four of four cases tested in our study, clinical response was associated with the T-cell response to melanoma cells (Table 3). The use of peptide/MHC tetramers allowed us to correlate the increased frequency of Melan-A/MART1-specific T cells with clinical CR in patients 01-007 and 02-003 (Rivoltini et al, manuscript in preparation), although, as shown in Fig 3, some patients (01-009, 01-002, 03-006, and 01-029) showed a prior existence of antimelanoma response even before vaccination that might have included T-cell and/or NK-cell activity. Such findings have also been reported in colon cancer and melanoma patients,30-32 and it can be explained by recognition of tumor antigens occurring, in a sizable number of cases, during the natural history of tumor growth. The lack of apparent T-cell response in approximately 50% of patients (12 of 23) may be attributed to several, nonexclusive factors. These include the lack of antigens in the original tumor, the loss of antigenicity during vaccine preparation, lack of antigen recognition by the host’s immune system, or our inability to detect the responses in the assays used. Of these, loss of antigenicity during the vaccine manufacturing appears unlikely, because at least two Oncophage preparations were shown to specifically stimulate autologous PBMCs of vaccinated patients (Fig 3).

Immunohistochemical analysis of the melanomas revealed downregulation of expression of HLA-A, HLA-B, or HLA-C in 46% (nine of 21) of the assessable patients examined, a figure consistent with data reported in the literature for metastatic melanoma.33 A sample that showed <= 20% of tumor cells to be HC-10+ was considered to have a downregulated HLA expression. Furthermore, our use of the HC-10, an HLA class I framework mAb, may have underestimated the extent of downregulation of the HLA at the level of single alleles. It is difficult to evaluate the significance of the downregulation of class I HLA, because even in the two patients who showed CRs, a fraction of tumor cells had lost surface expression of HLA. Such class I MHC-negative cells may have been destroyed by bystander killing or may have become targets of the NK response elicited by immunization with gp96, as shown previously.14,15

The expression of melanoma antigens was less frequently reduced, with two groups of seven tumors each, out of 21 samples examined, showing less than 20% of cells positive for Melan-A/MART-1 and gp100, respectively. It was of interest that high HLA-A and Melan-A/MART-1 expression was associated with clinical response, suggesting that patients whose tumors bear the appropriate target molecules (ie, HLA-antigen complexes) may become immunologically primed during early tumor growth and able to develop a recall response on vaccination with HSPPC-96.

This study was initiated as part of a clinical program to translate into human trials some of the extensive data on tumor-protective immunogenicity of tumor-derived HSP-peptide complexes. It has shown that in addition to being feasible, safe, and well-tolerated, immunization of cancer patients with bulky advanced disease with HSPPC-96 is associated with clinical and measurable immunologic responses in a significant minority of patients. These data, although limited in number and scope, are consistent with the murine experience that therapy of mice with progressively growing cancers with gp96-peptide complexes leads to regression of tumors in a small number of mice and stabilization of disease in additional mice.14


    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
We thank Giuseppe Viale, MD, and Giovanni Mazzarol, MD, of the European Institute of Oncology (Milan) for providing tissue sections of a patient, Paola Squarcina and Ilaria Bersani for technical help, Mary Gios and Rosella Dragonetti for secretarial help, and Grazia Barp for editorial assistance.


    NOTES
 
Supported by a grant from Sigma Tau i.f.r. S.p.A. (Rome). P.S. is supported by National Institutes of Health grant no. 84479 and a sponsored research agreement with Antigenics, Inc., in which he has a significant financial interest. R.C. and M.C. are employees of the Sigma Tau i.f.r. S.p.A., and J.J.L. is an employee of Antigenics, Inc.

Presented in part at the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, San Francisco, CA, May 12-15, 2001.

© 2002 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

0732-183X/02/2020-4169/$20.00


    REFERENCES
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 PATIENTS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
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Submitted September 28, 2001; accepted June 28, 2002.


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Immune modulation with high-dose heat-shock protein gp96: therapy of murine autoimmune diabetes and encephalomyelitis
Int. Immunol., April 1, 2004; 16(4): 615 - 624.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Cancer Res.Home page
C. Massa, C. Guiducci, I. Arioli, M. Parenza, M. P. Colombo, and C. Melani
Enhanced Efficacy of Tumor Cell Vaccines Transfected with Secretable hsp70
Cancer Res., February 15, 2004; 64(4): 1502 - 1508.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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J Antimicrob ChemotherHome page
J. Stebbing, P. Savage, S. Patterson, and B. Gazzard
All for CD91 and CD91 for all
J. Antimicrob. Chemother., January 1, 2004; 53(1): 1 - 3.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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J. Immunol.Home page
K. Fleischer, B. Schmidt, W. Kastenmuller, D. H. Busch, I. Drexler, G. Sutter, M. Heike, C. Peschel, and H. Bernhard
Melanoma-Reactive Class I-Restricted Cytotoxic T Cell Clones Are Stimulated by Dendritic Cells Loaded with Synthetic Peptides, but Fail to Respond to Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Melanoma-Derived Heat Shock Proteins In Vitro
J. Immunol., January 1, 2004; 172(1): 162 - 169.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Cancer Res.Home page
X. F. Huang, W. Ren, L. Rollins, P. Pittman, M. Shah, L. Shen, Q. Gu, R. Strube, F. Hu, and S.-Y. Chen
A Broadly Applicable, Personalized Heat Shock Protein-Mediated Oncolytic Tumor Vaccine
Cancer Res., November 1, 2003; 63(21): 7321 - 7329.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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J. Immunol.Home page
L. Rivoltini, C. Castelli, M. Carrabba, V. Mazzaferro, L. Pilla, V. Huber, J. Coppa, G. Gallino, C. Scheibenbogen, P. Squarcina, et al.
Human Tumor-Derived Heat Shock Protein 96 Mediates In Vitro Activation and In Vivo Expansion of Melanoma- and Colon Carcinoma-Specific T Cells
J. Immunol., October 1, 2003; 171(7): 3467 - 3474.
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Clin. Cancer Res.Home page
D. Nagorsen, C. Scheibenbogen, F. M. Marincola, A. Letsch, and U. Keilholz
Natural T Cell Immunity against Cancer
Clin. Cancer Res., October 1, 2003; 9(12): 4296 - 4303.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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BloodHome page
J. Stebbing, B. Gazzard, S. Portsmouth, F. Gotch, L. Kim, M. Bower, S. Mandalia, R. Binder, P. Srivastava, and S. Patterson
Disease-associated dendritic cells respond to disease-specific antigens through the common heat shock protein receptor
Blood, September 1, 2003; 102(5): 1806 - 1814.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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J. Biol. Chem.Home page
R. C. Reed, B. Berwin, J. P. Baker, and C. V. Nicchitta
GRP94/gp96 Elicits ERK Activation in Murine Macrophages: A ROLE FOR ENDOTOXIN CONTAMINATION IN NF-{kappa}B ACTIVATION AND NITRIC OXIDE PRODUCTION
J. Biol. Chem., August 22, 2003; 278(34): 31853 - 31860.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Clin. Cancer Res.Home page
V. Mazzaferro, J. Coppa, M. G. Carrabba, L. Rivoltini, M. Schiavo, E. Regalia, L. Mariani, T. Camerini, A. Marchiano, S. Andreola, et al.
Vaccination with Autologous Tumor-derived Heat-Shock Protein Gp96 after Liver Resection for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Clin. Cancer Res., August 1, 2003; 9(9): 3235 - 3245.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Stem CellsHome page
S. M. Santini and F. Belardelli
Advances in the Use of Dendritic Cells and New Adjuvants for the Development of Therapeutic Vaccines
Stem Cells, July 1, 2003; 21(4): 495 - 505.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Ann OncolHome page
G. Parmiani, L. Pilla, C. Castelli, and L. Rivoltini
Vaccination of patients with solid tumours
Ann. Onc., June 1, 2003; 14(6): 817 - 824.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Cancer Res.Home page
M. G. Carrabba, C. Castelli, M. J. Maeurer, P. Squarcina, A. Cova, L. Pilla, N. Renkvist, G. Parmiani, and L. Rivoltini
Suboptimal Activation of CD8+ T Cells by Melanoma-derived Altered Peptide Ligands: Role of Melan-A/MART-1 Optimized Analogues
Cancer Res., April 1, 2003; 63(7): 1560 - 1567.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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JCOHome page
P. B. Chapman
Vaccinating Patients With Autologous Tumor
J. Clin. Oncol., October 15, 2002; 20(20): 4139 - 4140.
[Full Text] [PDF]


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