Adjuvant Autolymphocyte Therapy (ALT) For Patients With Non-Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

OBJECTIVES:

• Evaluate the ability of autologous lymphocyte therapy (ALT) given as adjuvant therapy following nephrectomy and/or complete surgical resection of any metastatic disease to delay or prevent metastatic recurrence in patients with high-risk renal cell carcinoma.
• Determine the incidence of tumor recurrence and the survival of these patients treated with this regimen.
• Determine the toxicity/morbidity of this regimen in these patients.
• Explore the relationship between clinical response and in vitro autologous lymphocyte characteristics, including lytic activity, cytokine production, response to cytokines, and phenotypic profile in these patients treated with this regimen.
• Assess patient immune status before, during, and after therapy.

OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to postnephrectomy interval (less than 3 months vs more than 3 months), extent of lymph node involvement (N1 vs N2-N3), interleukin-1 concentration in initial autologous lymphocyte culture (less than 500 pg/mL vs greater than 500 pg/mL), and prenephrectomy treatment.

Mononuclear cells are collected by apheresis on day 1 and cultured with interleukin-2 and monoclonal antibody OKT3. After cellular production, the autologous lymphocytes are reinfused over at least 30 minutes. Treatment repeats monthly for 6 months and then every 3 months for 6 months in the absence of unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 1 year, and then annually for 5 years.