KLH PULSED DENDRITIC CELLS IN AUTOLOGOUS PERIPHERAL BLOOD STEM CELL TRANSPLANT

受试者被邀请参加一项研究，该研究旨在研究自体干细胞移植后的免疫策略。受试者有资格接受这项研究，因为他们患有可治疗的疾病，并有可能通过骨髓移植治愈。虽然这仍然是治疗这种疾病的有效方法，但我们正在寻找改善结果的方法。我们正在研究改善移植结果的一种方法是尝试在移植后对患者进行免疫，希望有一天免疫策略可以用来提高整体治愈率。最终，我们想让病人免疫对抗他们自己的癌细胞。然而，作为第一步，我们正在研究能否增强骨髓移植后对一种简单蛋白质的免疫反应。我们尝试这样做的方法是看看我们是否可以通过使用一种叫做树突状细胞的特定细胞来为免疫反应提供强大的刺激，从而增强受试者的免疫反应。我们进行这项研究的方式是，在病人接受了自体移植手术后，他们会被一种蛋白质免疫，或者被脉冲作用于这种叫做树突状细胞的特定细胞的蛋白质免疫。受试者将被随机分配接受其中一种治疗。我们将尝试看一种治疗方法是否比另一种更好。也就是说，如果用树突状细胞免疫比用标准蛋白免疫更有效。我们正在研究受试者的免疫系统如何对两种不同类型的疫苗作出反应。这是一项初步研究，我们希望以此为基础，利用患者自身的肿瘤细胞进行免疫策略。

Subjects are invited to take part in a research study which is looking at an immunization strategy after an autologous stem cell transplant. Subjects are eligible to undergo this study because they have a disease that is treatable and potentially curative through bone marrow transplant. Although this remains an effective way of treating this disease, we are looking at ways to improve the outcome. One way we are looking at to improve the outcome of transplantation is to try to immunize patients after transplant with the hope that some day an immunization strategy can be used to improve the overall cure rate. Ultimately, we would like to immunize patients against their own cancer cells. However, as a first step we are seeing if we can enhance the immune response to a simple protein after bone marrow transplant. The way we are trying to do this is to see if we can boost subjects' immune response by using a specific cell called the dendritic cell as a way of providing a powerful stimulus to the immune response. The way we will perform this study is after patients have undergone an autologous transplant, they will be immunized either with a protein or with the protein that has been pulsed on this specific cell called the dendritic cell. Subjects will be randomly assigned to receive one or the other treatment. We will attempt to see if one of the treatments is better than another. That is, if the immunization with the dendritic cell is better than just with the immunization with the standard protein. We are examining how subjects' immune system will respond to two different types of vaccinations. This is a preliminary study from which we hope to proceed to an immunization strategy using patients' own tumor cells.