National Cancer Institute National Cancer Institute
U.S. National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute
NCI Home Cancer Topics Clinical Trials Cancer Statistics Research & Funding News About NCI
Clinical Trials (PDQ®)
Patient VersionHealth Professional Version
Page Options
Print This Page  Print This Page
E-Mail This Document  E-Mail This Document
Clinical Trial Questions?

Get Help:

1-800-4-CANCER or

LiveHelp online chat

Quick Links
Help Using the NCI Clinical Trials Search Form

Educational Materials About Clinical Trials

About NCI's Cancer Clinical Trials Registry

Dictionary of Cancer Terms

NCI Drug Dictionary
Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Liver Cancer

Basic Trial Information
Trial Description
     Summary
     Further Trial Information
     Eligibility Criteria
Trial Contact Information

Basic Trial Information

PhaseTypeStatusAgeSponsorProtocol IDs
Phase II, Phase ITreatmentClosedOver 18NCI, OtherCDR0000068806
UCLA-0001026, NCI-G01-1997, NCT00022334

Trial Description

Summary

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a person's white blood cells mixed with tumor proteins may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase I/II trial to study the effectiveness of vaccine therapy in treating patients who have liver cancer.

Further Study Information

OBJECTIVES:

  • Determine the maximum tolerated dose of alpha-fetoprotein peptide-pulsed autologous dendritic cells in HLA-A*0201-positive patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
  • Determine the safety and toxicity of this regimen in these patients.
  • Determine the immunological effects of this regimen in these patients.
  • Determine the progression-free survival and clinical responses in patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study.

Patients receive alpha-fetoprotein peptide-pulsed autologous dendritic cells intradermally on day 1. Treatment repeats every 2 weeks for a total of 3 doses in the absence of unacceptable toxicity.

Cohorts of 3-12 patients receive escalating doses of vaccine until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 6 or 2 of 12 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity.

Patients are followed at weeks 1, 4, and 12 and then every 6 months thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 12-18 patients will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Alpha-fetoprotein level greater than 30 ng/mL
  • HLA-A*0201 positive

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

  • Over 18

Performance status:

  • Karnofsky 70-100%

Life expectancy:

  • Not specified

Hematopoietic:

  • Hemoglobin greater than 9.0 g/dL (transfusion independent)
  • Platelet count greater than 50,000/mm^3
  • Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

  • Not specified

Renal:

  • Not specified

Cardiovascular:

  • No New York Heart Association class III or IV cardiac insufficiency
  • No coronary artery disease

Pulmonary:

  • Oxygen saturation at least 91% on room air
  • No dyspnea at rest

Other:

  • Not pregnant
  • Negative pregnancy test
  • Fertile patients must use 2 methods of effective contraception
  • HIV negative
  • No prior opportunistic infection
  • No congenital or acquired condition causing inability to generate immune response
  • Positive response to skin allergens
  • No acute viral, bacterial, or fungal infection requiring specific therapy
  • No underlying condition that would preclude study participation
  • No allergies to reagents used in study

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

  • Not specified

Chemotherapy:

  • At least 30 days since prior chemotherapy
  • No concurrent cytotoxic chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

  • At least 30 days since prior steroid therapy
  • No concurrent corticosteroids

Radiotherapy:

  • Not specified

Surgery:

  • No prior organ allografts

Other:

  • At least 14 days since prior therapy for acute infection
  • No concurrent cyclosporine
  • No concurrent immunosuppressive therapy

Trial Contact Information

Trial Lead Organizations/Sponsors

Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA

National Cancer Institute

James S. EconomouStudy Chair

Link to the current ClinicalTrials.gov record.
NLM Identifer NCT00022334
Information obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov on October 19, 2009

Note: Information about this trial is from the ClinicalTrials.gov database. The versions designated for health professionals and patients contain the same text. Minor changes may be made to the ClinicalTrials.gov record to standardize the names of study sponsors, sites, and contacts. Cancer.gov only lists sites that are recruiting patients for active trials, whereas ClinicalTrials.gov lists all sites for all trials. Questions and comments regarding the presented information should be directed to ClinicalTrials.gov.

Back to TopBack to Top

A Service of the National Cancer Institute
Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health USA.gov