Combination of Intensive Chemotherapy and Anticancer Vaccines in the Treatment of Human Malignancies: The Hematological Experience

Table 3

Immunotherapy in AML; the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches that have been investigated in clinical trials [82].

Strategy	Advantage	Disadvantage
Peptide vaccination	Easy to produce and administer	Selection of patients with certain HLA types and high antigen expression in the malignant cells
Normal dendritic cells loaded with AML-associated peptides	Presentation of several leukemia-specific and leukemia-associated antigens	Work-consuming in vitro procedures for preparation and antigenic loading (lysates, mRNA).
Whole tumor cell vaccines with irradiated AML cells:
(i) Leukemic cells plus
systemic administration of	Relatively easy to prepare, several antigens presented	Clinical side effects
immunostimulatory
cytokines
(ii) Modified leukemic cells	Several antigens presented	Complicated and work-consuming ex vivo handling
expressing GM-CSF or
CD80+IL2
Leukemic dendritic cells	Presentation of several leukemia-specific and leukemia-associated antigens	Heterogeneity between patients with regard to efficiency; work-consuming in vitro procedures for preparation and antigenic loading (lysates, mRNA).
IL-2 therapy	Easy to administer, induces innate and specific immunity	Serious side effects