Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0278488 (metastatic breast cancer)
 7,812 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) immune response has been well documented in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and ovarian cancer. Conflicting evidence exists regarding the existence of tumor-specific CTL populations in breast cancer. Tumor cells and tumor-associated lymphocytes (TAL) were isolated from the pleural effusions of six consecutive patients with metastatic breast cancer. After solid-phase anti-CD3 stimulation, TAL cultures were expanded with weekly autologous tumor stimulation and low-dose IL-2 for 3 wk. T cell populations were characterized using flow cytometric analysis and ranged from 49 to 91% CD8+, > 98% CD3+, and < 3% CD16+. Functionally, tumor-stimulated TAL showed tumor-specific recognition of autologous tumor cells (241 +/- 142 LU20/10(7)) and no detectable lysis of autologous fibroblasts, Daudi or K562. Cytotoxicity of TAL against HLA-A2+ allogeneic targets was significantly higher when compared with HLA-A2- tumor cell lines (127 +/- 76 vs 6 +/- 18 LU, p = 0.0001). This cytotoxicity against autologous and allogeneic tumor cells was blocked by anti-HLA-A2 mAb and cold HLA-A2+ targets in cold-target inhibition assays. TAL from all HLA-A2+ patients recognized GP2, a known, HER2/neu-derived tumor-associated peptide Ag that is HLA-A2 restricted. We have shown that TAL obtained from metastatic effusions of breast cancer patients contain lymphocytes that can recognize and lyse autologous and allogeneic tumor cells in a tumor-specific, HLA-A2-restricted fashion. In addition, tumor-specific TAL derived from breast cancer patients can selectively lyse HLA-A2+ pancreatic and ovarian tumor cell targets, suggesting a common HLA-A2-restricted tumor-associated Ag between these distinct epithelial cancers. Further elucidation of the cell-mediated immune response to breast cancer and the identification of shared TAA could result in the development of broadly applicable vaccine therapies for many cancers.
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PMID:Tumor-specific and HLA-A2-restricted cytolysis by tumor-associated lymphocytes in human metastatic breast cancer. 759 11

The evaluation of contaminating breast cancer cells in hematopoietic grafts is of considerable importance for monitoring the efficiency of purging procedures. We report a comparison of three systems for the in vitro detection and enumeration of metastatic breast cancer cells. Breast cancer cells from established cell lines were mixed with Daudi cells at dilutions ranging from 1:10 to 1:1,000,000, and a predetermined number were fixed in defined areas on microscope slides coated with one of the following attachment factors: (i) Cell-Tak Cell and Tissue Adhesive, (ii) 0.1% solution of Poly-L-Lysine, or (iii) Cel-Line HTC Super Cured slides. We employed a specificity-proven pancytokeratin antibody (A45-B/B3) and the alkaline phosphatase-antialkaline phosphatase (APAAP) staining technique. In multiple experiments, one breast cancer cell in 1,000,000 Daudi cells could reliably be detected in the Cell-Tak and Cel-Line systems and 1 in 100,000, with the Poly-L-Lysine system. The observed number of seeded cells showed a highly significant correlation with the number of cells seeded (p < 0.0001 in all cases). Finally, we used the Cell-Tak method to evaluate clinical material from various sources: from patients with primary carcinomas of the breast, prechemotherapy, and during various chemotherapeutic regimens, as well as from patients with metastatic disease. The system consistently detected tumor cells in bone marrow samples from these patients. All peripheral blood samples from patients with metastatic disease tested positive at incidences ranging from 5 to 19/10(6) peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This is a simple and reliable technique that allows rapid screening of large cell numbers with high resolution of positive cells.
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PMID:Immunocytochemical detection of breast cancer cells: a comparison of three attachment factors. 911 15

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the toxicity and potential efficacy of administering the THERATOPE STn-KLH cancer vaccine to ovarian and breast cancer patients after an autologous stem cell transplant. Forty patients (11 high-risk stage II/III breast cancer, 22 stage IV breast cancer, and seven stage III/IV ovarian cancer patients) were treated with high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous/syngeneic stem cell rescue and vaccination with THERATOPE STn-KLH (Sialyl-Tn-KLH with Detox-B Stable Emulsion). Each patient was scheduled to receive a total of five vaccinations beginning on days 30-151 after stem cell infusion. The vaccine was well tolerated. Induration and erythema at the site of injection were the most common side-effects. When one compares the outcome of patients vaccinated with 66 breast and ovarian cancer patients who were not, following risk-adjustment analysis, vaccinated patients appeared more likely to survive (P = 0.07) and less likely to relapse (P = 0. 10). Vaccinated patients with the greatest specific lytic activity against STn+OVCAR tumor cells relative to nonspecific killing of Daudi cells tended to remain in remission longer than patients who displayed less specific immune activity (P = 0.057). We conclude that the THERATOPE STn-KLH cancer vaccine is well tolerated in breast and ovarian cancer patients after autologous transplant and, while not statistically significant, the trends in data support the concept that THERATOPE vaccine may decrease the risk for relapse and death and thus warrants further study. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2000) 25, 1233-1241.
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PMID:Clinical outcome of breast and ovarian cancer patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy, autologous stem cell rescue and THERATOPE STn-KLH cancer vaccine. 1087 27