Adoptive cell therapy is a highly personalized cancer therapy that involves administration to the cancer-bearing host of immune cells with direct anticancer activity. We report the successful treatment for the patients with recurrent Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST) with adoptive cellular immunotherapy and personalized vaccine.
A total of 8 patients (aged from 29 to 54 years) with GIST. The patients with recurrent progressive disease refractory to aggressive multi-modality therapy including repetitive surgical resection, radiation, and chemotherapy and all lines targeted therapy. They received multiple courses of systemic intravenous administration of allogenous phytohemagglutinin (PHA) activated T-lymphocytes in combination with a low dose of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and personalized vaccine, which was adopted in laboratory from donors B-lymphocytes and Patient’s Circulated Tumor Cells.
The side-effects of this treatment were limited and manageable. Among 8 patients, 5 achieved a complete remission (p < 0,001 as compared to the 3 noncomplete response patients) , as demonstrated by MRI after 2 months from initiation of immune therapy and confirmed by glucose-positron emission tomography (PET) imaging 7 months after initiation of immune therapy. After 14 months of follow-up, the 5 patients are still in remission with improving performance status. 2 patients showed disease progression during the treatment in the liver and both lungs too as multiple metastases and only one patient had disease stabilization.
Adoptive cellular immunotherapy utilizing allogenous phytohemagglutinin (PHA) activated T-lymphocytes and personalized vaccine with low dose IL-2 appears to be a safe and effective therapy for a subset of patients with primary, recurrent or progressive Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors following conventional therapy.
Paris Descartes University
Paris Sorbonne University
Tbilisi State Medical University
The authors.
Has not received any funding.
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.