Interferon Alfa With or Without Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Metastatic Melanoma

Overview

RATIONALE: Interferon alfa may interfere with the growth of cancer cells.Vaccines may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. It is not yet known whether melanoma vaccine plus interferon alfa is more effective than interferon alfa alone in treating patients with metastatic melanoma. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of interferon alfa with or without vaccine therapy in treating patients with metastatic melanoma.

OBJECTIVES: I. Compare survival following immunotherapy with an allogeneic melanoma vaccine plus interferon alfa-2b (IFN-A) vs. IFN-A alone in patients with metastatic melanoma. II. Assess the safety and toxicity of immunotherapy with an allogeneic melanoma vaccine plus IFN-A in these patients. III. Compare the frequencies of durable complete responses in each treatment group. IV. Compare overall clinical objective response, duration of response, and time to disease progression in each treatment group. V. Compare the effects of immunotherapy with an allogeneic melanoma vaccine plus IFN-A vs IFN-A alone on quality of life in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified by location of metastatic sites (visceral and bone vs nonvisceral and lung) and number of metastatic sites (1 vs 2 vs 3 or more). Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms. Arm I: Patients receive allogenic melanoma cell lysate vaccine with detoxified endotoxin subcutaneously (SQ) weekly on weeks 1-5 and 8-12. Interferon alfa (IFN-A) SQ is administered three times a week beginning on week 4. Patients with responding or stable disease receive vaccine monthly beginning on week 16. IFN-A continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Arm II: Patients receive IFN-A SQ three times a week beginning on week 1. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Quality of life is assessed before, during, and after treatment. Patients are followed every 3 months. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 300 patients will be entered over 2 years.

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Eligibility

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