RATIONALE: Vaccines made from peptide 946 may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Combining these vaccines with proteins from the tetanus vaccine, and/or with either QS21 or Montanide ISA-51 may be an effective treatment for metastatic melanoma. PURPOSE: Randomized phase I trial to study the effectiveness of vaccines made from peptide 946 with or without tetanus peptide, QS21, or Montanide ISA-51 in treating patients with metastatic melanoma that cannot be surgically removed or with melanoma that is likely to recur.
OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the safety of peptide 946 melanoma vaccine (peptide 946), peptide 946 combined with tetanus peptide melanoma vaccine, or peptide 946-tetanus peptide conjugate in patients with high risk melanoma. II. Determine the immunogenicity of peptide 946 melanoma vaccine (peptide 946), peptide 946 combined with tetanus peptide melanoma vaccine, or peptide 946-tetanus peptide conjugate in patients with high risk melanoma. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label study. Patients are randomized to 1 of 6 treatment arms: Arm I: Patients receive peptide 946 melanoma vaccine (peptide 946) emulsified with QS21 subcutaneously (SQ). Arm II: Patients receive peptide 946 emulsified with Montanide ISA-51 (ISA-51) SQ. Arm III: Patients receive peptide 946 combined with tetanus peptide melanoma vaccine (tetanus peptide) emulsified with QS21 SQ. Arm IV: Patients receive peptide 946 combined with tetanus peptide emulsified with ISA-51 SQ. Arm V: Patients receive peptide 946-tetanus peptide conjugate emulsified with QS21 SQ. Arm VI: Patients receive peptide 946-tetanus peptide conjugate emulsified with ISA-51 SQ. Initially, 4 patients are randomized to Arm I and 4 patients are randomized to Arm II. If no dose limiting toxicities are observed in these patients, then additional patients are randomized to arms III-VI. Patients in each arm receive vaccine on day 0 and at months 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12. Patients are followed at 6 and 12 months. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A maximum of 36 patients will be accrued for this study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
22
vaccine adjuvant
Peptides emulsified in IFA.
This a nonamer peptide YLEPGPVTA from Gp100, used as a melanoma vaccine antigen.
Cancer Center, University of Virginia HSC
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
Safety: Grade 3 Adverse Events
Adverse events are monitored according to NCI/DCT Common Toxicity Criteria
Time frame: Up to 24 months after last vaccine
Immunogenicity of Each Vaccine Regimen
T cell responses to the p946 (gp100 \[280-288\]) peptide. All enrolled patients were assayed for immune response to the gp100 peptide by ELIspot assay after 14 days in vitro sensitization. The number with a response in each study arm is reported.
Time frame: up to 12 months since enrollment
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.
This peptide is a longer version of p946 (gp100 \[280-288\]) sythesized colinearly with the tetanus helper peptide (Tet-p)
modified form of the p2 peptide from tetanus toxoid, used as nonspecific epitope for helper T cells.