Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients Undergoing Surgery for Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• To evaluate the feasibility and safety of an autologous brain tumor stem cell messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-loaded dendritic cell vaccine in adult patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.

Secondary

• To assess humoral and cellular immune responses to vaccination.
• To compare the proportion of vaccinated patients alive at 6 months from the time of surgery for recurrent tumor with matched historical cohorts.

OUTLINE: Patients undergo surgical resection of tumor. Tumor tissue samples are collected to isolate brain tumor stem cells (BTSCs) and for extraction and amplification of BTSC-specific mRNA. Within 4 weeks after surgical resection, patients undergo leukapheresis over 4 hours to generate dendritic cells (DCs). Patients also undergo leukapheresis at 1 week after the third vaccination and then at least every 3 months as needed for generation of additional DCs.

Patients receive autologous BTSC mRNA-loaded DC vaccine intradermally once weekly for 3 weeks and then once monthly in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically.