Lung cancer
The inducing course of immunotherapy consists of 10 subcutaneous vaccinations (five at weekly and five at fortnight intervals) and takes about 3 months. The supporting vaccination schedule is determined by both a disease stage and a health state of a patient. The treatment is conducted on an outpatient basis.
The vaccine-induced, immune processes destroy the tumor cells and suppress the development of residual disease.
Xenogenic polyantigenic vaccine (XPV) is sterile.
The development of an influenza-like syndrome in the form of a body temperature rise up to 38°, but also and musculoskeletal discomfort are possible. Those symptoms are usually self-limited. The immunotherapy has no side effects attributable to chemoradiotherapy.
Xenovaccinotherapy for lung cancer
Therapeutic vaccination is a strategy that uses tumor-associated antigens to induce tumor-specific, immune responses. The xenogenic (murine) polyantigenic vaccine (XPV) -in which there are main families of common tumor associated antigens - has been developed in the Institute of Clinical immunology. The small structural distinctions of xenogenic tumor-associated antigens from their human analogues render these antigens highly immunogenic and capable of stimulating immune-mediated, antitumor responses in a patient not only at early, but also at late stages of a disease, when tumor-derived immunosuppression is significant for more information.
More than one in four of all diagnosed cancers involve the lung, and lung cancer remains the most common cancer-related cause of death among men and women. Surgery is the primary treatment for patients with early-stage cancer who are in good general health. The goal of surgery is to totally eliminate all the tumor cells and thereby provide a cure. In a majority of cases, either the patient is not fit for surgery or it is not possible to remove the entire tumor because of its size or location. The radio-chemotherapy of the advanced disease solves mainly palliative tasks and has no substantial influence on of the survival of patients. Chemotherapy causes many distressing side effects, such as severe nausea with vomiting, anemia, and damage to the white blood cells needed to combat infection. Therefore, the application of chemotherapy is not reasonable in many cases. It is reasonable to believe that the future progress in system treatment for lung cancer will be defined by developing immunotherapeutic technologies.
Our own experience suggests that the clinical effect of various grades (complete or partial response, disease stabilization) with a duration not shorter than 6 months may be achieved in more than half of XPV-treated patients with stage IV disease. The results obtained are encouraging Nevertheless they must be interpreted with caution because they are based on a small number of patients with very advanced disease.
The examples of applying xenovaccinotherapy for metastatic lung cancer are described below.
A 50 year-old patient (a history 0008) diagnosed with ñentral squamous carcinoma of the left, low- lobar bronchus, metastatic lesions in the upper lobe of the right lung and in regional lymph nodes (T2 N3M1), atelectasis of 6 segment on the right, began to vaccinate in August 2000. At that time the patient complained of dyspnea at rest, cough with blood streaked sputum, general weakness and low back pain. ERS was 60 mm/h. A rise in the body’s temperature up to 38.5 0 was noted in response to vaccination. The patient’s state remained stable until April 2001, when hemoptysis and weakness became to increase. Because of marked weakness the patient was in bed during the most time. Symptomatic therapy was intensified. During 1 months the state of the patient stabilized, the life-threatening symptoms were cut short. At 1 year after vaccinotherapy initiation a roentgenological picture was without negative dynamics. UI revealed the signs of focal lesion (56 x 54 mm) in the right kidney. The blood parameters were normal. There was a complain of periodic macrohematuria. In April 2004 a roentgenological picture was characterized by rugged pneumofibrosis. CT revealed the signs of focal lesion (49.5 õ 56.4 mm.) in the right kidney; the focus (27.9 õ 61.2 õ 70 mm).of bone destruction was noted in the huckle-bone. The right kidney was surgically ablated in September 2004 ( histological diagnosis was metastatic lesion). In the final analysis, at 4.5 years after vaccinotherapy initiation the patient was in good condition, had no signs of disease progression.
A 75 year-old patient Å ( a history ¹ 0112), diagnosed with ñentral squamous carcinoma of the right lung with rontgenological signs of metastatic lesions in S3 segment on the left, and in II intercostal space on the right, began to vaccinate in April 2002. At that time he complained of dyspnea at rest, cough with moderate quantity of phlegm, and marked general weakness. The treatment was well tolerated. In the final analysis, at 3 years after vaccinotherapy initiation a significant amelioration of disease symptoms was noted. The examination revealed no signs of disease progression.
