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Gassner FJ, Weiss L, Geisberger R, Hofbauer JP, Egle A, Hartmann TN, Greil R, Tinhofer I. Fludarabine modulates composition and function of the T cell pool in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2011; 60:75-85. [PMID: 20857100 PMCID: PMC3029666 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-010-0920-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2009] [Accepted: 09/06/2010] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
The combination of cytotoxic treatment with strategies for immune activation represents an attractive strategy for tumour therapy. Following reduction of high tumour burden by effective cytotoxic agents, two major immune-stimulating approaches are being pursued. First, innate immunity can be activated by monoclonal antibodies triggering antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Second, tumour-specific T cell responses can be generated by immunization of patients with peptides derived from tumour antigens and infused in soluble form or loaded onto dendritic cells. The choice of cytotoxic agents for such combinatory regimens is crucial since most substances such as fludarabine are considered immunosuppressive while others such as cyclophosphamide can have immunostimulatory activity. We tested in this study whether fludarabine and/or cyclophosphamide, which represent a very effective treatment regimen for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, would interfere with a therapeutic strategy of T cell activation. Analysis of peripheral blood samples from patients prior and during fludarabine/cyclophosphamide therapy revealed rapid and sustained reduction of tumour cells but also of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. This correlated with a significant cytotoxic activity of fludarabine/cyclophosphamide on T cells in vitro. Unexpectedly, T cells surviving fludarabine/cyclophosphamide treatment in vitro had a more mature phenotype, while fludarabine-treated T cells were significantly more responsive to mitogenic stimulation than their untreated counterparts and showed a shift towards T(H)1 cytokine secretion. In conclusion, fludarabine/cyclophosphamide therapy though inducing significant and relevant T cell depletion seems to generate a micromilieu suitable for subsequent T cell activation.
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MESH Headings
- Aged
- Aged, 80 and over
- Antigens, CD/metabolism
- Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use
- Cyclophosphamide/pharmacology
- Female
- Humans
- Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell/drug therapy
- Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell/immunology
- Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell/pathology
- Lymphocyte Activation/drug effects
- Male
- Middle Aged
- Myeloablative Agonists/pharmacology
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets/drug effects
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets/immunology
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets/metabolism
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets/pathology
- T-Lymphocytes/drug effects
- T-Lymphocytes/immunology
- T-Lymphocytes/metabolism
- T-Lymphocytes/pathology
- Vidarabine/analogs & derivatives
- Vidarabine/pharmacology
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Affiliation(s)
- Franz Josef Gassner
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Lukas Weiss
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Roland Geisberger
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Josefina Piñón Hofbauer
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Alexander Egle
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Tanja Nicole Hartmann
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Richard Greil
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Inge Tinhofer
- Laboratory for Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research (LIMCR), 3rd Medical Department with Haematology, Medical Oncology, Haemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Muellner Hauptstrasse 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
- Translational Radiobiology and Radiooncology Research Laboratory, Clinical Department for Radiotherapy (CCM/CVK), Charité University Hospital Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Abstract
While chemotherapy is successful at inducing remission of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the disease has a high probability of relapse. Strategies to prevent relapse involve consolidation chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation and immunotherapy. Evidence for immunosurveillance of AML and susceptibility of leukaemia cells to both T cell and natural killer (NK) cell attack and justifies the application of immune strategies to control residual AML persisting after remission induction. Immune therapy for AML includes allogeneic stem cell transplantation, adoptive transfer of allogeneic or autologous T cells or NK cells, vaccination with leukaemia cells, dendritic cells, cell lysates, peptides and DNA vaccines and treatment with cytokines, antibodies and immunomodulatory agents. Here we describe what is known about the immunological features of AML at presentation and in remission, the current status of immunotherapy and strategies combining treatment approaches with a view to achieving leukaemia cure.
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Affiliation(s)
- A J Barrett
- Stem Cell Allotransplantation Section, Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1202, USA.
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Zhang T, Herlyn D. Combination of active specific immunotherapy or adoptive antibody or lymphocyte immunotherapy with chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2008; 58:475-92. [PMID: 18925393 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-008-0598-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2008] [Accepted: 09/17/2008] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Successful treatment of cancer patients with a combination of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and chemotherapeutic drugs has spawned various other forms of additional combination therapies, including vaccines or adoptive lymphocyte transfer combined with chemotherapeutics. These therapies were effective against established tumors in animal models and showed promising results in initial clinical trials in cancer patients, awaiting testing in larger randomized controlled studies. Although combination between immunotherapy and chemotherapy has long been viewed as incompatible as chemotherapy, especially in high doses meant to increase anti-tumor efficacy, has induced immunosuppression, various mechanisms may explain the reported synergistic effects of the two types of therapies. Thus direct effects of chemotherapy on tumor or host environment, such as induction of tumor cell death, elimination of regulatory T cells, and/or enhancement of tumor cell sensitivity to lysis by CTL may account for enhancement of immunotherapy by chemotherapy. Furthermore, induction of lymphopenia by chemotherapy has increased the efficacy of adoptive lymphocyte transfer in cancer patients. On the other hand, immunotherapy may directly modulate the tumor's sensitivity to chemotherapy. Thus, anti-tumor mAb can increase the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs and patients treated first with immunotherapy followed by chemotherapy showed higher clinical response rates than patients that had received chemotherapy alone. In conclusion, combination of active specific immunotherapy or adoptive mAb or lymphocyte immunotherapy with chemotherapy has great potential for the treatment of cancer patients which needs to be confirmed in larger controlled and randomized Phase III trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianqian Zhang
- The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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Zhang WG, Liu SH, Cao XM, Cheng YX, Ma XR, Yang Y, Wang YL. A phase-I clinical trial of active immunotherapy for acute leukemia using inactivated autologous leukemia cells mixed with IL-2, GM-CSF, and IL-6. Leuk Res 2005; 29:3-9. [PMID: 15541469 DOI: 10.1016/j.leukres.2004.04.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2003] [Accepted: 04/28/2004] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
UNLABELLED We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of vaccination in 29 patients with relapsed or refractory acute leukemia using inactivated autologous leukemia cells combined with interleukin-2 (IL-2), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and IL-6. MHC-I, MHC-II, and B7-1 expression status on the surface of leukemia cells and the cytokine profile of IFN-gamma and IL-10 in serum before and after vaccination was detected. RESULTS Five achieved a complete remission (CR) and six a partial remission (PR) in this vaccination procedure. Adverse effects were erythema, swelling erosion, and even ulcers at vaccination sites and low grade fever during the first three days of vaccination. No other significant side effects were observed. The expression of MHC-I and MHC-II on leukemia cells was 100% and 90% positive, respectively. B7-1 was exclusively expressed on some cases of M4 and M5. The efficacy of the vaccine was statistically associated with the expression status of B7-1 on leukemia cells (P < 0.01). The serum level of IL-10 reduced significantly in the five patients who achieved complete remission (CR) after vaccination as compared with when they were originally diagnosed (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION We presented here a promising immunotherapy in the treatment of acute leukemia, especially for F.A.B. M5.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wang-Gang Zhang
- The Department of Clinical Hematology, the Affiliated No.2 hospital, the 5th west avenue, Xi'an JiaoTong University, Xi'an 710004, PR China.
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Smolewski P, Darzynkiewicz Z, Robak T. Caspase-mediated cell death in hematological malignancies: theoretical considerations, methods of assessment, and clinical implications. Leuk Lymphoma 2003; 44:1089-104. [PMID: 12916860 DOI: 10.1080/1042819031000077007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Apoptosis, the caspase-mediated cell death, plays an important role in the etiology, pathogenesis and therapy of a variety of diseases. Abnormalities of apoptosis regulation, resulting in either its inhibition or enhancement, play a key role in the development of various malignant hematological disorders. Several routine and new therapeutic strategies in Oncohematology are based on apoptosis modulation. Cytotoxic effects of most antineoplastic drugs are based on induction of apoptosis. The accurate estimate of incidence of apoptosis, therefore, is of importance in Oncohematology. In this review we provide an overview of the methods designed to measure the incidence of apoptosis, including the recently developed assays that are based on detection of caspases activation. We also review recent findings on the role of caspase-mediated cell death in hematological malignancies and discuss their clinical implications, including new therapeutical strategies that evolve from these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Piotr Smolewski
- Department of Hematology, Medical University of Lodz, Copernicus Hospital, ul. Ciokowskiego 2, 93-510 Lodz, Poland.
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