Immunotherapy effective after chemotherapy

Results from a study funded primarily by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society demonstrate that a patient's immune system, crippled by chemotherapy, can be rapidly rebuilt using the patient's own cells.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Maryland are reporting the successful results of their clinical trial of "immunotherapy" in this week's online edition of Nature Medicine.

The "proof-of-principle" study was focused on multiple myeloma patients and is the first-ever successful adoptive immunotherapy trial.

"This is the first randomized study to demonstrate accelerated T cell reconstitution, and the first demonstration of improved immune function," said Deborah Banker, vice president, Research Communications for the Society.

Variations on the immunotherapy theme are being tested around the world, offering the promise of using a patient's and/or a donor's immune system cells to selectively kill malignant cells with minimal side effects. But, real proof that immunotherapy can work has been elusive.

The short-term benefit of the researchers' procedure will likely be the reduction in post-transplant infections, which are suffered by as many as 40% of transplant patients. Their findings also support the further development of immunotherapy to induce effective anti-tumor immune vaccine responses that could eradicate minimal residual disease and lead to cures.