A novel dendritic cell vaccine has been developed at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR). Pre-clinical studies have found that this dendritic cell vaccine is more efficient in inducing a tumor specific immunity than other dendritic cell vaccines. Further studies in the BIIR have been done with dendritic cells that were loaded with killed melanoma cells from a melanoma cell line treated with heat before loading. Both studies have shown that DCs manufactured in this novel way were more efficient in priming the melanoma specific CD8+ cells. Thus, the strategy for this clinical trial will be to test recent laboratory findings in the clinical setting. An additional objective of the study will be to determine the effectiveness of a frozen vaccine product which differs from previous vaccines that were manufactured fresh.~This clinical trial will evaluate the novel dendritic cell vaccine in patients with Stage IV melanoma. The trial will accrue a total of 30 subjects. The primary goal of this trial will be to test the safety/tolerability/feasibility of the vaccine preparation and the rate of objective clinical response. A 15% objective response rate will be accepted in patients who have failed previous therapy with IL-2 and/or dacarbazine (DTIC) and/or temozolomide which are standard treatments for patients with malignant melanoma.~Each subject will be given 7 initial injections in a fixed dose amount. The first 4 doses will be given at 2-week intervals (Weeks 0, 2, 4 and 6); the last 3 doses will be given at 4-week intervals (Weeks 10, 14, and 18). Those patients who exhibit stable disease, partial response or complete response after 7 injections will be given 4 more vaccinations. Each of these additional 4 vaccinations will be given 3 months apart (Weeks 36, 48, 72 and 96). Scans and re-staging tests will be performed at scheduled intervals throughout the study.
The purpose of this study is to test a novel dendritic cell (DC) vaccine in patients with Stage IV melanoma.