A Phase I Trial of Vaccination With Autologous, Lethally Irradiated Tumor Cells Engineered by Adenoviral Mediated Gene Transfer to Secrete Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor in Pediatric and Adult Patients

The patient will have surgery to remove a portion of the tumor. This tumor is then brought to a special, certified laboratory where it is broken up into single cells and then washed.

Specially trained laboratory technicians then use a method known as adenoviral mediated gene transfer, which adds a new gene to the cancer calls. This gene causes the cells to make GM-CSF, a powerful hormone that stimulates the immune system. The cells are then given enough radiation so that they will never grow, but not enough to completely destroy them, developing a vaccine.

The patient is then injected with the vaccine on days 0, 7, 14, 28, and then every two weeks until the supply of vaccine has run out. The amount of vaccine that can be made depends upon the total amount of cells taken from the tumor. The actual injections are like childhood vaccinations that go under the skin or into muscle and a different place will be used for each injection.

It is hoped that the cancer cells that have been made to secrete the hormone GM-CSF will cause the patient's immune system to attack the cancer in other parts of the body.

If the tumor yields enough cells, the patient will also be given an injection of non-transduced irradiated tumor cells. Non-transduced means that the gene for GM-CSF has not been added to these cells as it has for the vaccines. This is done to measure the amount of reaction of the immune system caused by the vaccine. This injection is measuring delayed type hypersensitivity, or DTH.