Vaccination Of HLA-A1 And/Or -A2+ Stage III or IV Melanoma Patients With Tumor Peptide - Loaded Autologous Dendritic Cells That Are Generated In The Absence Or Presence Of CD40 Ligand

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare the efficacy of vaccination with autologous dendritic cells pulsed with tumor and influenza antigen peptides treated with vs without ex vivo CD40-ligand, in terms of tumor-specific T-cell response, in patients with HLA-A1 and/or HLA-A2.1 positive stage III or IV melanoma.
• Determine the safety and tolerability of these vaccinations in these patients.
• Determine tumor response and recurrence rates in patients treated with these vaccinations.

OUTLINE: This is an open-label non-randomized study.

• Phase I: Patients undergo leukapheresis for collection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). PBMC are cultured with sargramostim (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 to generate dendritic cells (DCs) on day -9. DCs are pulsed separately with HLA-A1 and HLA-A2.1-restricted flu matrix peptides derived from melanoma-associated tumor antigens (MAGE-10.A2, Melan-A, MAGE-3, NY-ESO-1, gp100 antigen, and tyrosinase peptide). Half of the DCs are treated ex vivo with CD40-ligand. Patients receive the peptide-pulsed DC vaccinations subcutaneously (SC) on days 1, 14, 42, and 70 in the absence of disease progression.

Patients who show tumor response (at least stable disease) at day 98 progress to phase II of the study.