Treatment of Stage IV Breast Cancer With Activated T Cells After Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant (Pilot Phase II)

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine whether the use of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation followed by immunotherapy with activated T cells in women with stage IV breast cancer improves progression-free survival (PFS) compared to a reported mean PFS in patients treated with second-line chemotherapy with matching inclusion criteria by published trials.
• Determine if this regimen improves clinical response and overall survival.
• Perform sequential immune monitoring studies, including phenotyping, cytotoxic assays, EliSpots for IFNγ, selected T-cell repertoire (Vβ analysis), HER2/new tetramer analysis, and serum tumor markers.
• Test correlations between immune function tests and clinical endpoints.

OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to tumor classification (chemosensitive vs chemoresistant).

Patients receive filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously (SC) daily for 4 days followed by peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) collection for PBSCT and generation of activated T cells (ATC). The PBMC are treated ex vivo with monoclonal antibody OKT3 to form ATC. The ATC are expanded for 12-14 days in interleukin-2 (IL-2).

Patients then receive high-dose chemotherapy. Patients with chemosensitive disease receive cyclophosphamide IV over 1 hour, thiotepa IV over 1 hour, and carboplatin IV over 1 hour on days -4, -3, and -2. Patients with chemoresistant disease receive ifosfamide IV over 1 hour, etoposide IV twice daily, and carboplatin IV over 1 hour on days -8 to -3. Patients undergo autologous PBSC transplantation on day 0 or on both day 0 and day 1.