Phase I/II open-label study of the biologic effects of the interleukin-2 immunocytokine EMD 273063 (hu14.18-IL2) in patients with metastatic malignant melanoma.

BACKGROUND: To explore the biological activity of EMD 273063 (hu14.18-IL2), a humanized anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody fused to interleukin-2 (IL2), in patients with unresectable, stage IV cutaneous melanoma as measured by induction of immune activation at the tumor site and in peripheral blood. METHODS: Nine patients were treated with 4 mg/m2 per day of EMD 273063 given as a 4-h intravenous infusion on days 1, 2, and 3 every four weeks (one cycle). Peripheral blood was analyzed for T cell and natural killer cell phenotype and frequency, as well as levels of soluble IL2 receptor (sIL2R), IL10, IL6, tumor necrosis factor alpha and neopterin. Biopsies of tumor metastasis were performed prior to therapy and at day 10 of the first 2 cycles to study lymphocyte accumulation by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Treatment was generally well tolerated and there were no study drug-related grade 4 adverse events. Grade 3 events were mainly those associated with IL2, most commonly rigors (3 patients) and pyrexia (2 patients). Best response on therapy was stable disease in 2 patients. There were no objective tumor regressions by standard response criteria. Systemic immune activation was demonstrated by increases in serum levels of sIL2R, IL10, and neopterin. There was evidence of increased tumor infiltration by T cells, but not NK cells, in most post-dosing biopsies, suggesting recruitment of immune cells to the tumor site. CONCLUSION: EMD 273063 demonstrated biologic activity with increased immune-related cytokines and intratumoral changes in some patients consistent with the suspected mechanism of action of this immunocytokine.

A Phase I study of bortezomib plus irinotecan in patients with advanced solid tumors.

BACKGROUND: The authors conducted a Phase I dose-finding trial to study the use of combined bortezomib plus irinotecan in patients with advanced solid tumors. METHODS: Patients who had received >/=1 prior chemotherapy regimen were eligible. Patients received bortezomib (1.0 mg/m(2), 1.3 mg/m(2), or 1.5 mg/m(2)) on Days 1, 4, 8, and 11 and received irinotecan (from 50 mg/m(2) to 125 mg/m(2)) on Days 1 and 8 of each 21-day cycle for a maximum of 8 cycles. Bortezomib followed irinotecan on coadministration days in Cycle 1 and Cycles 3 through 8 but preceded irinotecan in Cycle 2 to assess the effect of administration sequence on bortezomib pharmacodynamics. RESULTS: Fifty-one enrolled patients with malignancies, including colorectal cancer (n = 23 patients), lung cancer (n = 6 patients), gastroesophageal cancer (n = 6 patients), and pancreatic cancer (n = 3 patients), received >/=1 dose of study drug. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea were the principal dose-limiting toxicities and led to the maximum tolerated doses of 1.3 mg/m(2) bortezomib and 125 mg/m(2) irinotecan. The most common grade >/=3 bortezomib-related nonhematologic adverse events were fatigue (n = 5 episodes), diarrhea (n = 4 episodes), and nausea (n = 4 episodes). grade >/=3 bortezomib-related hematologic adverse events included neutropenia (n = 6 episodes) and thrombocytopenia (n = 4 episodes) and rarely were dose limiting. Of 34 evaluable patients, no objective responses according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors were seen; 10 patients achieved stable disease. The degree of proteasome inhibition in whole blood indicated that the biologic activity of bortezomib was unaffected by irinotecan coadministration. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this Phase I study in patients with solid tumors indicated that bortezomib at a dose of 1.3 mg/m(2) on Days 1, 4, 8, and 11 plus irinotecan at a dose of 125 mg/m(2) on Days 1 and 8 every 21 days were the recommended Phase II doses.

Phase I clinical trial of bortezomib in combination with gemcitabine in patients with advanced solid tumors.

BACKGROUND: Bortezomib is the first proteasome inhibitor to show preliminary evidence of activity against solid tumors. Findings from preclinical studies prompted a Phase I trial to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) of bortezomib in combination with gemcitabine in patients with recurring/refractory advanced solid tumors. The effect of gemcitabine on proteasome inhibition by bortezomib in whole blood was also investigated. METHODS: Bortezomib was administered as an intravenous bolus injection on Days 1, 4, 8, and 11, with gemcitabine (30-minute infusion) on Days 1 and 8 of a 21-day cycle. Groups of > or =3 patients were evaluated at each dose level. Escalating doses of gemcitabine 500 mg/m(2) to 1000 mg/m(2) with bortezomib 1.0 mg/m(2) to 1.5 mg/m(2) were planned. RESULTS: There were no DLTs in patients receiving bortezomib 1.0 mg/m(2) and gemcitabine 500 mg/m(2) to 1000 mg/m(2) in the first 3 dose levels. Dose-limiting nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal obstruction, and thrombocytopenia occurred in 4 of 5 evaluable patients in dose level 4 (bortezomib 1.3 mg/m(2), gemcitabine 800 mg/m(2)), establishing bortezomib 1.0 mg/m(2) and gemcitabine 1000 mg/m(2) as the MTD. Most common Grade > or =3 toxicities were neutropenia (6 patients), thrombocytopenia (5 patients), gastrointestinal disorders (6 patients), and general disorders (4 patients) such as fatigue. One patient with nonsmall cell lung carcinoma achieved a partial response and 7 achieved stable disease. Inhibition of 20S proteasome activity by bortezomib was unaffected by gemcitabine coadministration. CONCLUSION: Dosages of bortezomib and gemcitabine suitable for further evaluation of antitumor activity have been established.

Bortezomib plus docetaxel in advanced non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors: a phase I California Cancer Consortium trial.

BACKGROUND: This phase I study was performed to determine the dose-limiting toxicity and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of docetaxel in combination with bortezomib in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or other solid tumors. METHODS: Patients were enrolled in cohorts of three over six dose levels. Each treatment cycle was 3 weeks long and consisted of one docetaxel infusion (day 1) and four bortezomib injections (days 1, 4, 8, and 11). Dose escalation and MTD determination were based on the occurrence of dose-limiting toxicities in cycle 1 only. RESULTS: A total of 36 patients were enrolled, 26 of whom had NSCLC. All patients received at least one dose of study drug at one of five dose levels. The MTD of the combined regimen was determined to be 1.0/75 mg/m bortezomib/docetaxel. The combination was generally well tolerated. Toxicities were manageable, and no additive toxicities were observed. The most common adverse events were fatigue (67% of patients), nausea (50%), diarrhea (39%), and neutropenia (39%). Two patients with NSCLC achieved a partial response, and seven (19%) patients achieved stable disease (including six patients with NSCLC). CONCLUSION: The combination of bortezomib and docetaxel was feasible and well tolerated in patients with advanced NSCLC or other solid tumors. The recommended phase II dose is bortezomib 1.0 mg/m on days 1, 4, 8, and 11 plus docetaxel 75 mg/m on day 1, cycled every 21 days. Therapeutic doses of docetaxel and bortezomib are achievable for this combination.

Randomized phase II study of bortezomib alone and bortezomib in combination with docetaxel in previously treated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of bortezomib +/- docetaxel as second-line therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to bortezomib 1.5 mg/m2 (arm A) or bortezomib 1.3 mg/m2 plus docetaxel 75 mg/m2 (arm B). A treatment cycle of 21 days comprised four bortezomib doses on days 1, 4, 8, and 11, plus, in arm B, docetaxel on day 1. Patients could receive unlimited cycles. The primary end point was response rate. RESULTS: A total of 155 patients were treated, 75 in arm A and 80 in arm B. Baseline characteristics were comparable. Investigator-assessed response rates were 8% in arm A and 9% in arm B. Disease control rates were 29% in arm A and 54% in arm B. Median time to progression was 1.5 months in arm A and 4.0 months in arm B. One-year survival was 39% and 33%, and median survival was 7.4 and 7.8 months in arms A and B, respectively. Adverse effect profiles were as expected in both arms, with no significant additivity. The most common grade > or = 3 adverse events were neutropenia, fatigue, and dyspnea (4% and 53%, 19% and 26%, and 17% and 14% of patients in arms A and B, respectively). CONCLUSION: Bortezomib has modest single-agent activity in patients with relapsed or refractory advanced NSCLC using this schedule, with minor enhancement in combination with docetaxel. Additional investigation of bortezomib in NSCLC is warranted in combination with other drugs known to be active, or using different schedules.

Safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of new formulations of the Plasmodium falciparum malaria peptide vaccine SPf66 combined with the immunological adjuvant QS-21.

SPf66 is a synthetic malaria peptide vaccine, which has been widely tested in combination with aluminium hydroxide (alum) as the adjuvant. Since this formulation is weakly immunogenic, we sought to improve its immunogenicity by using the saponin adjuvant QS-21. SPf66/QS-21 vaccines were evaluated for safety, tolerability and immunogenicity in healthy adults. The vaccines were found to be safe in 87/89 (97.8%) volunteers studied. However, two individuals developed severe vaccine allergy following the third dose of 1/3 SPf66/QS-21 formulations tested. Vaccine formulations containing QS-21 induced a 45- to over 200-fold increase in anti-SPf66 IgG titres over the alum formulation after the second and third doses, respectively. Anti-SPf66 antibody from some subjects reacted against asexual blood stage parasites, as demonstrated by immunofluorescence and immunoblotting. Antibody responses generated by the QS-21 formulations were of longer duration compared to those evoked by the alum formulation. While SPf66/alum has been found to induce only CD4+ T cell response, the QS-21 formulations exhibited the potential to also elicit SPf66-specific CD8+ responses. These observations demonstrate that the use of QS-21 can substantially enhance the immunogenicity of peptide vaccines, such as SPf66.

Pharmacogenomics.

The discovery of the human genome and subsequent expansion of proteomics research combined with emerging technologies such as functional imaging, biosensors and sophisticated computational biology are producing unprecedented changes in today's healthcare. The expanding knowledge of the molecular basis of cancer has shown that significant differences in gene expression patterns can guide therapy not only for neoplastic conditions, but also for a variety of diseases including inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative processes. As a result, the fields of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics have emerged as potential new testing platforms for the individualized management of patients. An individual's response to a drug is the complex interaction of both genetic and non-genetic factors. Genetic variants in the drug target itself, disease pathway genes, or drug metabolizing enzymes may all be used as predictors of drug efficacy or toxicity. In oncology, the SNP technology has focused on detecting the predisposition for cancer, predicting of toxic responses to drugs and selecting the best individual and combinations of anti-cancer drugs. Pharmacogenomics involves the application of whole genome technologies (e.g., gene and protein expression data) for the prediction of the sensitivity or resistance of an individual's disease to a single or group of drugs. Genomic microarrays and transcriptional profiling have the ability to generate hundreds of thousands of data points requiring sophisticated and complex information systems necessary for accurate and useful data analysis. This technique has generated a wealth of new information in the fields of leukemia/lymphoma, and solid tumor classification and prediction of metastasis, drug and biomarker target discovery and pharmacogenomic drug efficacy testing.

Immediate-type hypersensitivity and other clinical reactions in volunteers immunized with a synthetic multi-antigen peptide vaccine (PfCS-MAP1NYU) against Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites.

We tested the clinical reactions to a synthetic, Plasmodium falciparum, circumsporozoite multiple antigen peptide (MAP) vaccine in 39 volunteers immunized two to three times over 2-8 months using a dose escalation design. Immediate pain at the injection site was associated with the adjuvant QS-21 (P<0.001), and delayed local inflammatory reactions were associated with high-titered circulating IgG anti-MAP antibody (P=0.03). Because two volunteers developed acute, systemic urticaria after the third immunization associated with development of serum IgE MAP antibody, we employed immediate-type hypersensitivity skin tests (ITH-STs) using intradermal injections of diluted MAP vaccine to identify persons sensitized to the vaccine. ITH-STs were negative in seven volunteers tested 27 days after the first vaccination, but six of these individuals developed positive wheal and flare reactions when tested 14 or 83 days after the second vaccination; IgE MAP antibody was detected in only one of them. Another cohort of 16 volunteers, including the 2 allergic individuals, were ITH-ST negative when first tested late after their second or third vaccination at 6-7 months. Five of five non-immunized persons were also ITH-ST negative. ITH-STs may help identify individuals sensitized to malaria peptides and at potential risk of developing systemic allergic reactions after re-vaccination.

Amino acid dimorphism and parasite immune evasion: cellular immune responses to a promiscuous epitope of Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein 1 displaying dimorphic amino acid polymorphism are highly constrained.

Like most other surface-exposed antigens of Plasmodium falciparum, the leading malaria vaccine candidate merozoite surface protein (MSP)-1 contains a large number of dimorphic amino acid positions. This type of diversity is presumed to be associated with parasite immune evasion and represents one major obstacle to malaria subunit vaccine development. To understand the precise role of antigen dimorphism in immune evasion, we have analyzed the flexibility of CD4 T cell immune responses against a semi-conserved sequence stretch of the N-terminal block of MSP-1. While this sequence contains overlapping promiscuous T cell epitopes and is a target for growth inhibitory antibodies, three dimorphic amino acid positions may limit its suitability as component of a multi-epitope malaria vaccine. We have analyzed the CD4 T cell responses in a group of human volunteers immunized with a synthetic malaria peptide vaccine containing a single MSP-143-53 sequence variant. All human T cell lines and HLA-DR- or -DP-restricted T cell clones studied were exclusively specific for the sequence variant used for immunization. Competition peptide binding assays with affinity-purified HLA-DR molecules indicated that dimorphism does not primarily affect HLA binding. Modeling studies of the dominant restricting HLA-DRB1*0801 molecule showed that the dimorphic amino acids represent potential TCR contact residues. Lack of productive triggering of the TCR by MHC/variant peptide ligand complexes thus seems to be the characteristic feature of parasite immune evasion associated with antigen dimorphism.