Phase I clinical trial of an adenovirus/prostate-specific antigen vaccine for prostate cancer: safety and immunologic results.

PURPOSE: We performed a phase I clinical trial of adenovirus/prostate-specific antigen (PSA) vaccine in men with measurable metastatic hormone-refractory disease. EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGN: Men with measurable metastatic disease received one vaccine injection. Toxicity, immune responses, changes in PSA doubling times, and patient survival were assessed. Thirty-two patients with hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer were treated with a single s.c. vaccine injection at one of three dose levels, either as an aqueous solution or suspended in a Gelfoam matrix. All patients returned for physical and clinical chemistry examinations at regular intervals up to 12 months after injections.
RESULTS: The vaccine was deemed safe at all doses in both administration forms. There were no serious vaccine-related adverse events; the most prevalent were localized erythema/ecchymoses and cold/flu-like symptoms. Anti-PSA antibodies were produced by 34% of patients and anti-PSA T-cell responses were produced by 68%. PSA doubling time was increased in 48%, whereas 55% survived longer than predicted by the Halabi nomogram.
CONCLUSIONS: The adenovirus/PSA vaccine was proven safe with no serious vaccine-related adverse events. The majority of vaccinated patients produced anti-PSA T-cell responses and over half survived longer than predicted by nomogram. Although the latter data are only derived from a small number of patients in this phase I trial, they are encouraging enough to pursue further studies.