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，因为他们的疾病是可以治疗的，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。我们正在考虑的一种改善移植结果的方法是尝试在移植后为患者接种疫苗，希望有一天可以使用免疫策略来提高总体治愈率。最终，我们希望让患者对自己的癌细胞产生免疫。然而，作为第一步，我们正在观察是否能在骨髓移植后增强对一种简单蛋白质的免疫反应。我们试图做到这一点的方法是，看看我们是否可以通过使用一种名为树突状细胞的特定细胞来增强受试者的免疫反应，作为一种为免疫反应提供强大刺激的方式。我们将进行这项研究的方式是，在患者接受自体移植后，他们将被免疫，要么用一种蛋白质，要么用这种被称为树突状细胞的特定细胞上的蛋白质进行免疫。受试者将被随机分配接受一种或另一种治疗。我们将尝试看看其中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只用标准蛋白免疫更好。我们正在研究受试者的免疫系统对两种不同类型的疫苗的反应。这是一项初步研究，我们希望从这项研究开始，利用患者自己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.