Breast Cancer Vaccines Based on Dendritic Cells and the Chemokines

The major objective of this project was to establish a new modality for the treatment of breast cancer that employs the combination of chemokines with breast tumor-pulsed dendritic cells to both recruit andor concentrate from the periphery low frequency immune reactive T cells as well as to potently stimulate these effector cells once localized at the vaccination site. This final report documents our successes in a number of areas, both experimentally and clinically. We have completed the overall project, which has resulted in twenty-nine publications, the awarding of a new spin-off NCINIH RO1 clinical research grant and a T32 training grant in translational tumor immunology and immunotherapy, as well as the initiation of a phase II clinical trial in advanced breast cancer patients. During the course of our studies related to the Technical Objectives, we made the important discovery that SLC can significantly inhibit the growth of breast tumor in mice. We successfully constructed a recombinant adenovirus vector containing the SLC gene, which can transduce both animal and human dendritic cells at high efficiency for use in our cancer vaccine strategy. A second vaccine clinical trial in breast cancer patients to incorporate SLC-producing dendritic cells is planned.