0000000000493887
AUTHOR
Carmen Scheibenbogen
Quantitation of antigen-reactive T cells in peripheral blood by IFNgamma-ELISPOT assay and chromium-release assay: a four-centre comparative trial
The ELISPOT assay is increasingly being used for the monitoring of the induction of antigen-reactive T cells in cancer vaccination trials. In order to evaluate the reliability of T cell frequency analysis with the ELISPOT assay, a comparative study was performed in four European laboratories. Six samples from healthy subjects were analyzed for the frequency of influenza-reactive CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by IFNgamma-ELISPOT assay. In addition, one laboratory determined cytotoxic T cell precursor (CTL) frequencies in these samples by limiting dilution chromium-release assay (LDA), and three laboratories performed a variant of the LDA, the multiple microculture…
Brain metastases following interleukin-2 plus interferon-alpha-2a therapy
Abstract This study analyses the frequency and therapy of brain metastases in 94 stage IV melanoma patients after treatment with high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-α (IFN-α) within three subsequent trials between 1990 and 1995. Central nervous system (CNS) metastases occurred in 28 patients (30%) during the potential follow-up period of 6 years. Time to occurence of brain metastases varied between 1 and 53 months, with a median of 10 months. Of 28 patients, 19 had
Long-term outcome of treatment with dacarbazine, cisplatin, interferon-α and intravenous high dose interleukin-2 in poor risk melanoma patients
Melanoma patients with very advanced disease are usually excluded from chemoimmunotherapy trials; however, the efficacy of intensive treatment regimens needs to be established for this patient population. This study aimed to evaluate the response rate and survival achieved with chemoimmunotherapy in very advanced melanoma patients. Forty-two patients received dacarbazine (250 mg/m2, days 1-3), cisplatin (30mg/m2, days 1-3), interferon-alpha (10 Mio IU/m2 subcutaneously, days 1-5) and intravenous interleukin-2 (18 Mio IU/m2 over 6 h, 12 h then 24 h, followed by 13.5 MioIU/m2 in 72 h). In cases of brain metastases (n = 12) radiation therapy was added. Ten patients (24%) achieved a partial res…
Long-term freedom from recurrence in 2 stage IV melanoma patients following vaccination with tyrosinase peptides.
We report here on 2 patients who received adjuvant vaccination with an HLA-A2- or HLA-A24-restricted tyrosinase peptide, respectively, and GM-CSF for frequently relapsing stage IV melanoma. Following resection of metastases and irradiation of brain metastases in 1 patient, both patients were without evidence of disease when receiving the first vaccination. While the patients had had 9 and 12, respectively, mostly s.c., relapses during the 3 years before vaccination, they experienced freedom from relapse for more than 2 years after vaccination. We found a T-cell response to the vaccine peptide in both patients in the peripheral blood by ex vivo IFN-gamma ELISPOT assay. The T-cell population …