The aim of this clinical study is to evaluate the feasibility and safety of an individualized peptide vaccination approach in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who experienced at least stable disease after four cycles of standard of care immune therapy (ipilimumab/nivolumab). For this purpose, tumor-specific mutations are analyzed by comparative exome sequencing of tumor and healthy reference tissue. In a second step, HLA-binding (human leukocyte antigen-binding) peptides derived from mutated protein sequences are selected for vaccination. The peptides are administered as a vaccination cocktail with adjuvant GM-CSF and Imiquimod over a course of 9 months and a total of 16 vaccinations. Primary objective is the de novo induction of a specific T cell response without unacceptable toxicity.
This is a monocenter, single-arm, prospective phase Ib trial, designed to evaluate the safety, clinical toxicity and in vivo immunological effects of a patient-individualized peptide vaccination added to standard of care checkpoint blockade (nivolumab) in adult patients with metastatic/advanced renal cell carcinoma who experienced at least stable disease after four cycles of standard of care immune therapy (ipilimumab/nivolumab).