FOCUS On FOCIS: Combined Chemo-Immunotherapy For The Treatment Of Hormone-Refractory Metastatic Prostate Cancer

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology;  Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 15 Jun 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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UroToday.com - The long-term goal of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy group at The Institute of Immunology, Charles University, 2nd Medical School is the development of dendritic cell-based cancer vaccine. Administration of this vaccine will induce the tumor cell-specific induce response, complement current treatment modalities, and contribute to an improved prognosis of patients with cancer.

Dendritic cells represent the most efficient antigen-presenting cells as they activate primary immune response. Protocols developed in 1990s allow for generation of large numbers of dendritic cells from monocytes circulating in peripheral blood. Dendritic cell biology and their use in the immunotherapy of tumors have been studied at the Institute of Immunology for more than 10 years as documented here.

In collaboration with renowned European laboratories, we have developed protocols for dendritic cell-based vaccines for the treatment of ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and for patients with hematological malignancies. The first step of vaccine development is the generation of large numbers of dendritic cells from patient's monocytes. Dendritic cells are then incubated with tumor antigens, activated, and subsequently administered to patients in defined vaccination programs. As every tumor has different biology, the efficacy of this approach has to be tested separately for each type of cancer. At present, we have experimental data for the capacity of dendritic cell-based vaccines to induce tumor-specific immune response in prostate and ovarian cancer.

Cancer vaccine generation has to be executed under strictly aseptic conditions. In 2007, University Hospital Motol built a cell therapy unit, the first unit in the Czech republic that allows for the generation of clinical-grade products for cellular therapy, including cancer vaccines. In 2008, the Czech Drug Agency approved the generation of a clinical-grade dendritic cell-based vaccine and we now plan to initiate clinical trials in patients with prostate and ovarian cancer.

Patients interested in this therapy are kindly asked to visit our website for updates on the approval of the clinical trial by the Czech Drug Agency and for the inclusion criteria.

It is important to emphasize that cancer immunotherapy is not a novel, miraculous approach for the treatment of tumors. However, we hope that optimal initiation of cancer immunotherapy in combination with other treatment modalities (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery) will offer an additional benefit to cancer patients.

Written by Daniela Rožková, PhD as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. Principal Investigators: Prof. Jiřina Bartůňková, MD, PhD, MBA and Assoc. Prof. Radek Špíšek, MD, PhD.

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