Showing papers by "Gabriel Nistor published in 2015"

Phase I trial of active specific immunotherapy with autologous dendritic cells pulsed with autologous irradiated tumor stem cells in hepatitis B-positive patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract: Background and Objectives Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often associated with chronic hepatitis due to hepatitis-B or -C viruses. Active specific immunotherapy (ASI) with autologous dendritic cells (DC) presenting antigens from autologous tumor stem cell (TC) lines is associated with promising long-term survival in metastatic cancer, but hepatitis patients were excluded. ASI might benefit high-risk primary HCC patients following surgical resection, but first it is important to show that ASI does not exacerbate hepatitis. Methods Previously untreated HCC patients with a solitary lesion > 5 cm, or three lesions with at least one > 3 cm, or more than three lesions, underwent surgical resection from which autologous TC lines were established. Irradiated TC were incubated with autologous DC to create DC-TC. After one course of trans-arterial chemoembolization therapy (TACE), three weekly subcutaneous injections of DC-TC suspended in granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor were administered. Patients were monitored for eight weeks. Results HCC cell lines were established within five weeks for 15/15 patients. Eight patients, all with chronic hepatitis B, were treated. There was no increase in hepatic transaminases, hepatitis B antigens, or viral DNA. Conclusion Autologous DC-TC did not exacerbate HBV in these HCC patients. A phase II efficacy trial is being planned. J. Surg. Oncol. 2015 111:862–867. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Immunogenic compositions prepared from tumor cells derived from peripheral blood and originating from a solid tumor and their use

Abstract: The described invention provides an immunopotent tumor-specific cancer cell product containing an immunogenic composition containing an immunostimulatory amount of an isolated population of dendritic cells contacted ex vivo with a cancer- specific cancer stem cell derived from a tumor cell, a tumor cell cluster, a tumor cell aggregate or a combination thereof expressing at least one cancer-specific antigen, the tumor cell, tumor cell cluster, tumor cell aggregate or the combination thereof being derived from peripheral blood; and an adjuvant; and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier; as well as methods for preparing and using same.