MELANOMA VACCINE--TYROSINASE/GP100 W/ MONTANIDE ISA51 OR GM CSF

在非恶性情况下，疫苗不是用来治疗既定疾病的，而是用来从一开始就防止疾病发生的。我们认为，使用疫苗治疗黑色素瘤等癌症的最好方法是防止手术治疗后疾病复发。我们正在研究一种多肽(蛋白质片段)疫苗的使用，这种疫苗使用大多数黑色素瘤细胞上已知的两种蛋白质的片段。已知这些片段可被组织类型(类似于血型，也称为HLA型)为HLA-A2+的患者的免疫细胞识别。在我们的研究中，皮肤黑色素瘤没有扩散到淋巴结，但厚到足以引起复发(II期黑色素瘤)的患者，如果是HLA-A2+，则给予基本肽疫苗或疫苗加GM-CSF注射。GM-CSF是一种刺激免疫系统的蛋白质，可能会提高疫苗的有效性，但自我注射的需要意味着我们不希望使用它，除非它明显改善对我们疫苗的免疫反应。注射总共分6个月进行。在接种疫苗之前和之后，患者将通过一种被称为分离的程序来去除白细胞。我们将比较这些白细胞在接种疫苗前后对这些多肽的识别和反应能力。

In nonmalignant conditions, vaccines are not used to treat established disease, but rather to prevent disease from occurring in the first place. We believe that the best way to use vaccines to treat cancers like melanoma is to prevent disease from reoccurring after surgical treatment. We are studying the use of a peptide (protein fragment) vaccine that uses fragments of two proteins known to be on most melanoma cells. The fragments are known to be recognized by immune cells of patients who tissue type (similar to a blood type, also called HLA type) is HLA-A2+. In our study, patients with melanoma of the skin that has not spread to the lymph nodes but is thick enough to be concerning for reoccurrence (stage II melanoma) who are HLA-A2+ are given either the basic peptide vaccine or the vaccine plus GM-CSF injections. GM-CSF is a protein that stimulates the immune system and may improve the effectiveness of the vaccine, but the need for self-injections means that we don+t wish to use it unless it clearly improves the immune response to our vaccine. Injections are spread over a total of 6 months. Before and after vaccination, patients will have white blood cells removed by a procedure known as apheresis. The ability of these white cells to recognize and respond to the peptides before and after vaccination will be compared.