Primary Outcome Measures:
- Safety [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
- Toxicity [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
- Antitumor efficacy [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
- Duration of in vivo persistence of adoptively
transferred CD8+ antigen-specific T-cell clones in the presence or
absence of transferred CD4+ T cells [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
- Influence of low-dose aldesleukin in enhancing the in vivo
persistence of transferred CD4+ and CD8+ T cells [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
OBJECTIVES:
- Assess the safety and toxicity of cellular adoptive immunotherapy in melanoma patients using autologous CD4+ and CD8+ antigen-specific T-cell clones.
- Evaluate the antitumor effects of CD4+ and CD8+ antigen-specific T cells in patients with metastatic melanoma.
- Determine the duration of in vivo persistence of adoptively transferred CD8+ antigen-specific T-cell clones in the presence or absence of transferred CD4+ T cells.
- Determine the influence of low-dose aldesleukin in enhancing the in vivo persistence of transferred CD4+ and CD8+ T cells.
OUTLINE: Patients undergo leukapheresis to provide peripheral blood mononuclear cells which will serve as a source of responder and stimulator cells for the in vitro generation of antigen-specific T cells over approximately 3-4 months. Patients may receive therapy during this time.
Patients receive an initial infusion of antigen-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocyte clones over 30-60 minutes to provide a baseline for assessing the contribution of CD4+ helper T-cell clones to augmenting persistence and function of CD8+ T cells. The second infusion (given 3-4 weeks after the first) will consist of the same dose of CD8+ T cells as the first infusion, together with antigen-specific CD4+ T-cell clones. All infusions will be preceded by 48 hours with a single infusion of low-dose cyclophosphamide.
The first 6 patients will receive infusions without aldesleukin (IL-2). If no serious adverse toxicities are observed, then the next 6 patients will receive both first and second infusions with a 14-day course of low-dose IL-2 subcutaneously twice daily.
After completion of study therapy, patients are followed every 3 months.