RNA Vaccines in Cancer Treatment

Table 1

Recent clinical trials using RNA-transfected DCs.

Cancer type	RNA source/target	Vaccination schedule	Number of study subjects	Immunological response	Clinical response	Reference
Colorectal cancer	Total autologous tumor	10^6 DCs pulsed with 25 𝜇g RNA and KLH intravenously 4 times on monthly intervals.	15	NA	NA	[73]
Adenocar-cinoma (lung)	Total autologous tumor	3 × 10^7 DCs transfected with 300 𝜇g RNA intravenously, followed by 10^6 DCs transfected with 10 𝜇g RNA intradermally 4 times on monthly intervals.	1	1/1	NA	[93]
Pancreatic cancer	CEA	10^7 DCs transfected with 20 𝜇g RNA intradermally 6 times on monthly intervals.	3	NA	NA	[65]
Prostate	PSA	10^7–5 × 10^7 DCs transfected with 1.5 𝜇g RNA/10^6 DCs intravenously, 3 times biweekly with escalating dose and 10^7 DCs intradermally.	16	9/9	NA	[64]
CEA-expressing cancers	CEA	10^7-10^8 DCs transfected with 2 𝜇g RNA/10^6 DCs intravenously and 0–10^6 trasnfected DCs intradermally 4 times biweekly.	42	NA	NA	[94]
RCC	Total autologous tumor	10^7–5 × 10^7 DCs transfected with 50 𝜇g RNA/10^7 DCs intravenously, 3 times biweekly with escalating dose and 10^7 DCs intradermally.	15	6/7	NA	[72]
Brain cancer	Total autologous tumor	0.5–5 × 10^7 DCs/m^2 transfected with 5 𝜇g RNA/ 10^6 DCs intravenously and 0.5 × 10^7 DCs/m^2 intradermally, 3 times biweekly with escalating dose, 3 times at 3-month intervals.	9	NA	2/7 SD	[95]
Neuroblas-toma	Total autologous tumor	0.5–5 × 10^7 DCs/m^2 transfected with 5 𝜇g RNA/10^6 DCs intravenously and 0.5 × 10^7 DCs/m^2 intradermally, 3 times biweekly with excalating dose, 3 times at 3-month intervals.	11	NA	1/7 SD	[96]
RCC, OVA	Total tumor from clear cell carcinoma tissue	Arm 1: 10^7 DCs electroporated with 5 𝜇g RNA/10^6 DCs intradermally, 3 times biweekly, 18 𝜇g/kg DAB389 IL-2 prior to vaccination.; Arm 2: 10^7 DCs electroporated with 5 𝜇g RNA/10^6 DCs intradermally, 3 times biweekly.	11; Arm 1: 7; Arm 2: 4	10/11; Arm 1: 7/7; Arm 2: 3/4	NA	[83]
Prostate	hTERT, LAMP hTERT	Arm 1: 10^7 DCs electroporated with 1 𝜇g hTERT RNA/106 DCs intradermally, 3 (6 patients) or 6 (5 patients) times weekly.; Arm 2: 10^7 DCs electroporated with 1 𝜇g LAMP hTERT RNA/106 DCs intradermally, 3 (6 patients) or 6 (3 patients) times weekly.	20; Arm 1: 11; Arm 2: 9	17/18	NA	[97]
Prostate	Total tumor from prostate cancer cell lines DU145, LNCaP, PC-3	2 × 10^7 electroporated DCs intranodally or intradermally, at least 4 times weekly.	19	12/19	11/19 SD	[98]
Melanoma	Total autologous tumor	Arm 1: 2 × 10^7 electroporated DCs intradermally 4 times weekly.; Arm 2: 2 × 10^7 electroporated DCs intranodally 4 times weekly.	22; Arm 1: 10; Arm 2: 12	9/19	2/20	[68]
Melanoma	Mage-A3, Mage-C2, tyrosinase, gp100	1.25 × 10^7 electroporated TriMix DCs intradermally, 4 times biweekly.	3	2/2	NA	[71]

NA: Not applicable; SD: Stable disease.