P B Chapman

..The low response rate among previously treated patients indicates that biochemotherapy is not useful as second-line therapy...

..A phase III trial is underway in SCLC patients to determine the effects of BEC2 on overall survival...

..5 mg dose used in previous BEC2 trials. Prolonged booster immunizations did not induce or maintain antibody responses...

..New treatment options are needed for adjuvant therapy of melanoma. In the meantime, the data from the randomized trials make it difficult for many clinicians and patients to have enthusiasm for adjuvant HD IFN...

..Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of the BRAF kinase inhibitor vemurafenib (PLX4032) have shown response rates of more than 50% in patients with metastatic melanoma with the BRAF V600E mutation...

..Future multivalent ganglioside vaccines should include the GD3-L-KLH vaccine...

..Once a relevant clinical response can be induced, it should be possible to develop validated immunoassays that will direct future melanoma vaccine development...

..1/2,000 in the second patient. These results demonstrate that modest expansion of peptide-specific CD8(+) T cells can be generated in vivo by immunization with peptide plus QS-21 in at least a subset of patients with melanoma...

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..A secondary objective was to test the feasibility of obtaining adequate tissue before and after treatment for genetic testing...

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..But the ability of NKT cells to modulate B-cell responses to tumor glycolipids that are themselves recognized by NKT cells has not been explored...

..Melanoma frequently metastasizes to the lung. Improved radiologic techniques may decrease the need for biopsy of such lesions. The aim of this study was to examine factors predictive of a positive biopsy of melanoma...

..Thus, by cytotoxicity assays, shared Ags were only recognized on melanoma cells but not on normal melanocytes. In summary, this analysis shows that melanoma cells share an Ag that is presented by HLA-DR15...

..The combination of g209-2M and low-dose IL-2 is safe and tolerable but inactive against advanced melanoma. Absence of evidence of immunization raises concerns for peptide-based immunization strategies with concurrent IL-2...

..Therefore, the efficacy and safety of temozolomide in combination with pegylated IFN-alpha-2b in patients with metastatic melanoma without brain metastases was investigated...

..This article reviews the recent clinical results of trials exploring different immunotherapy strategies against melanoma...

..Mouse and human TYR DNA vaccines were found safe and induced CD8(+) T-cell responses in 7 of 18 patients. T cells recognizing a native TYR peptide had a phenotype consistent with that of effector memory cells...

..We hypothesized that expression of methylguanine methyltransferase (MGMT) in the tumor would correlate with drug resistance to TMZ...

..The decision to use PFS as a primary endpoint should be made carefully when designing clinical trials, and investigators focused on a particular disease should develop consensus standards and strive for consistent surveillance intervals...

..The purpose of this article was to review the current state of knowledge regarding the efficacy of adjuvant therapy for melanoma...

..We found that this suppression was not mediated by soluble factors. We hypothesize that GM3 induces changes to the APC that lead to suppression of T helper type 2-like NKT-cell responses...

..Data on variates of survival and site of first metastasis may guide strategies for screening patients, although our data failed to show a survival advantage in discovering asymptomatic metastatic disease...

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..To establish a safe and tolerated regimen of an oral cytotoxic agent, temozolomide, and a cytostatic agent, thalidomide, in patients with unresectable stage III or IV malignant melanoma...

..Sample size tables are provided for parameter sets commonly used in the oncologic setting. Software is available by contacting the authors...

..The observation of two partial responses has led to a phase II study to evaluate treatment with high dose paracetamol alone or in combination with BCNU...

..This is the first analysis of a natural ligand for mouse NKT cells and the first definitive paper of cross-presentation to NKT cells. This could be a mechanism for NKT cell recognition of tumor gangliosides in CD1- tumors...

..To further investigate the efficacy and safety of temozolomide plus thalidomide in patients with metastatic melanoma without brain metastases...

..However, vaccination of patients with GD2-KLH has previously failed to induce a consistent relevant antibody response. We test here whether the use of GD2 lactone-KLH can overcome the low immunogenicity of GD2-KLH...

..We assessed whether Bec2/bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination prolongs survival in patients with limited-disease small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) after a major response to chemotherapy and chest radiation...

..The current Phase II study examined the efficacy and safety of this combination in chemotherapy-naive patients with brain metastases...

..CONCLUSION: TMZ at this dose and schedule results in CD4(+) lymphopenia in a majority of patients that can result in OIs. Pneumocystis pneumonia prophylaxis should be considered for patients who develop sustained lymphopenia on TMZ...

..In this series, serum MIA was not a sensitive marker for relapse in patients who were clinically free of disease after treatment...

..The assay detected mutant BRAF alleles in plasma samples from 14 of 26 (54%) metastatic melanoma patients. These data demonstrate the feasibility of blood-based testing for BRAF mutations in metastatic melanoma patients...

..In this paper, we evaluate the benefits and risks of adjuvant high-dose interferon-alpha2b and try to provide a framework to help oncologists guide patients trying to decide whether to undergo adjuvant high-dose interferon therapy...

..This close mentoring relationship reflects our current teaching paradigm. The grant award will provide the PI with more time to conduct the clinical trials and to mentor additional beginning clinical investigators. ..

..This will provide initial support for an immunotherapeutic approach based on antigen-specific NKT cells. ..

..As an exploratory analysis, we will compare expression patterns in pre-treatment vs. post-treatment specimens, clinically responding tumors vs. non-responding tumors, and mutant BRAF vs. wild-type BRAF tumors. ..