Development of a Brain Tumor Vaccine

Glioma is a malignant brain tumor associated with a poor outcome. Attempts at surgical removal of the tumor are the first approach. Additional necessary treatment strategies including cranial irradiation and systemic or local chemotherapy each have serious side effects and provide relatively minimal survival benefits. Antigenic differences between normal and malignant cells of the cancer patient form the rationale for clinical immunotherapeutic strategies. Cytokines such as IL-15 or IL-2 that stimulate an antitumor immune response have been shown to have a particularly high potential for use in immunotherapy against various tumors. In this chapter studies with either a poxvirus genetically engineered to secrete IL-15 or allogeneic fibroblasts engineered to secrete IL-2 are shown to be an effective treatment strategy in prolonging survival in mice with malignant intracerebral tumors upon injection of the treatment cells into the brain. Future studies with these treatment strategies in patients with intracerebral tumors are urgently needed.