Active specific immunotherapy with an autologous tumor cell vaccine in patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Eighteen postoperative patients with non-small cell lung cancer were actively immunized with a vaccine that included autologous cryopreserved irradiated tumor cells admixed with bacillus Calmette-Guerin. Patients received three weekly intradermal immunizations beginning 1-3 months after surgery (15 patients) or after completion of postoperative radiotherapy (3 patients). There was marked heterogeneity in the relative proportion of tumor cells versus host infiltrating cells within individual vaccines (range of percent tumor cells 7-75%). Five patients exhibited positive delayed cutaneous skin test reactivity (DCR) to autologous irradiated tumor cells prior to immunization, whereas 8 of 13 converted from skin test negative to positive. There were no correlations between DCR reactivity and in vitro lymphoproliferative responses to autologous tumor cells or to clinical outcomes, i.e., freedom from relapse. Possible explanations for the heterogeneity of the lung cancer vaccine and approaches for improving its immunogenicity are discussed.