UIC tests prostate canc...( A University of Illinois at Chicago res...),Health

The trial, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, will assess the effectiveness of the vaccine, created in the laboratory of Dr. David Peace, assistant professor of medicine, after five years of intensive research.

The vaccine includes a fragment of the protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. PSA is produced by cells lining the tubules of the prostate gland, as well as by prostate cancer cells. It has been used for years as a clinical marker for prostate cancer to screen for and monitor the disease. In the trial, Peace will determine whether PSA can also be used therapeutically to help the immune system target prostate cancer cells for destruction.

Studies in Peace's laboratory have shown that the vaccine causes subsets of the immune system's white blood cells to morph into highly specific killer white blood cells, called cytotoxic T lymphocytes, which selectively destroy tumor cells that express PSA. The white blood cells Peace used were drawn from healthy individuals as well as patients with advanced prostate tumors.

"Our laboratory findings suggest that the vaccine should be effective in treating advanced prostate cancer, where the patient's immune system is severely challenged," Peace said.

Results of the laboratory study are being presented at the Experimental Biology 2002 meeting in New Orleans on April 21.

Patients with prostate cancer are eligible to participate in the vaccine trial if, after undergoing surgery or radiotherapy to eliminate the tumor, (1) there is a high risk the tumor will recur, (2) the individual's PSA level is rising, or (3) the cancer has spread. Patients are considered to be at high risk for a recurrence of the cancer if their initial PSA level was greater than 10 ng/mL or their tumor grade (Glea
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Contact: Sharon Butler
sbutler@uic.edu
312-355-2522
University of Illinois at Chicago
21-Apr-2002