Phase I/II trial of vaccine therapy with tumor-RNA transfected dendritic cells in patients with advanced malignant melanoma

2540 Background: In an ongoing phase I/II trial advanced melanoma patients are vaccinated with autologous dendritic cells (DCs) transfected with RNA from the individual patient’s tumor. The objective is to make DCs present a broad spectrum of tumor-associated antigens and elicit immune response against tumor-associated proteins relevant to each individual patient. Methods: DCs are generated from monocytes obtained from peripheral blood cells (PBMCs). Monocytes are cultured with IL4 and GM-CSF for 5 days differentiating into immature DCs, transfected with tumour RNA by electroporation and cultured for 2 days with cytokines facilitating maturation. Each patient receives 4 weekly vaccines. One group are vaccinated intradermally, another group receive ultrasound guided intranodal vaccines. In vitro immunoassays (ΙNFγ, ELISPOT, and T-cell proliferation) are performed on pre- and post-vaccination PBMCs. Presently 22 patients have received all 4 vaccines. Our ethics committee approved the study and consent was o...