Experience in the use of dendritic vaccines in the treatment of patients with recurrent gliomas

Purpose of the study. To substantiate the expediency of cellular immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with relapses of high-grade gliomas and evaluate the safety of injecting allogeneic cells directly into the cerebrospinal fluid.

Materials and methods. Our study included 5 patients, median age 7,6 years (2–16). Three patients had anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) (1st recurrence – 1 patient, 2nd recurrence – 2 patients), 1 patient had glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) (3rd recurrence) and 1 had diffuse brainstem glioma (BSG). The median time to the first relapse was 12 months (4 to 16), to the second one was 5 months (1 to 8). The protocol of immunotherapy included combined administration of autologous dendritic cell-based vaccine (DV) and repeated intrathecal/intraventricular injections of donor allogenic immunocompetent cells (alloIC) for at least 2 years.

Results. Two of 3 patients with AA experienced a progression-free interval of 67 and 71 months One patient with 3rd GBM relapse is alive without any therapy 13.3 years after immunotherapy start. The median time of follow-up was 67 months with the 2‑years overall survival was 58 %. Two patients died from disease progression within 6 and 7 months from the start of immunotherapy. Over the period of treatment the patients received a median of 20 (8 to 60) alloIC injections and 18 (8 to 44) DV administrations. No serious side-effect was observed.

Conclusion. Immunotherapy could be an attractive option for treating patients with high-grade malignant gliomas irresponsible to conventional therapy and is worthy of further investigation.

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