�New research indicates that giving patients a continuous low lucy in the sky with diamonds of an immune system booster, a method known as metronomic dosing, as part of a healing prostate cancer vaccine strategy is safe and produces similar immune responses and fewer side of meat effects than the more than common dosing method, which is non well tolerated by many patients. This study, lED by researchers at that National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, was published in the Aug. 15, 2008, issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
The vaccine put-upon in this study is designed to stimulate an immune response against prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by the prostate that is often establish at elevated levels in the blood of workforce who have prostate cancer and some non-cancerous prostate conditions. In the subject area, researchers examined the side effects and immune responses of patients treated with a three-pronged approach: the vaccine, radiation therapy, and an alternative dosing regimen of an immune system booster, interleukin-2 (IL-2). The patients all had localized prostate cancer the Crab, had not undergone surgery to remove the prostate, and were candidates for radiation therapy as their primary form of treatment.
"Developing an alternative method of administering vaccine therapy that is well tolerated by most patients and produces similar immune responses to standard methods crataegus oxycantha help farther the development of vaccine therapies for prostate cancer the Crab," said James L. Gulley, M.D., Ph.D., of NCI's Center for Cancer Research.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines ar designed to treat cancer by stimulating the immune system to attack tumor cells without harming normal cells. Several proteins, including PSA, are overexpressed, or produced in excess amounts, by cancer cells and have shown potential to serve as triggers in initiating immune responses. These findings have led to the exploitation of malignant neoplastic disease vaccines that target these proteins. The proteins ar also known as tumor-associated antigens. To heighten the body's natural defenses, immune system boosters, such as IL-2, ar often tending with the vaccines. IL-2 administration, however, is oftentimes associated with substantial face effects, including fatigue and high line sugar.
In a premature study involving the same prostate cancer vaccine, IL-2 was granted to 19 patients daily for cinque days during each 28-day vaccine intervention cycle, and a tumid majority of the patients had to have the dose of IL-2 reduced or discontinued, primarily because of fatigue.
In this new bailiwick, the researchers sought to decrease the side personal effects associated with IL-2. To do this, the squad treated 18 patients with the vaccinum and radiation syndrome therapy, just with depress doses of IL-2 apt over a longer period of time. The patients received the same amount amount of IL-2 as in the previous sketch, but it was administered in smaller daily doses for 14 days of each 28-day treatment hz.
With metronomic dosing, less than a quarter of the patients had side of meat effects that required their dose of IL-2 to be reduced.
The research team also found that metronomic dosing of IL-2 produced personal effects on immune cell populations and immune responses that were standardised to those observed previously with the standard dosing method. Five of eight evaluated patients had at least a three-fold gain in immune cells that were directed against PSA. The researchers also noted that, similar to the standard dosing method, metronomic dosing of IL-2 induced immune responses against early prostate cancer antigens in some patients.
"Based on safety and feasibility, metronomic dosing appears to be superior to standard dosing and governance," said Gulley. "More research is needed to measure the efficaciousness of this dosing method in treating prostate malignant neoplastic disease."
For more than information on Dr. Gulley's research, please go here.
For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI site at hTTP://www.cancer.gov, or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal government agency for conducting and encouraging basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information virtually NIH and its programs, visit hypertext transfer protocol://www.national Institutes of Health.gov.
Reference
Lechleider RJ, Arlen PM, Tsang K, Steinberg SM, Yokokawa J, Cereda V, Camphausen K, Schlom J, Dahut WL, and Gulley JL. Safety and immunologic response of a viral vaccinum to PSA in combination with radiation therapy when metronomic-dose IL-2 is used as an adjuvant. Clinical Cancer Research. August 15, 2008.
Gulley JL, Arlen PM, Bastian A, Morin S, Marte J, Beetham P, Tsang K, Yokokawa J, Hodge JW, Menard C, Camphausen K, Coleman CN, Sullivan F, Steinberg SM, Schlom J, and Dahut W. Combining a recombinant cancer vaccine with standard unequivocal radiotherapy in patients with localized prostate cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 2005;11:3353-62.
http://www.nih.gov
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