P . I . : B . Gansbacher 
NON- SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACT OF PROPOSED STUDY 
Treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma and renal 
cell carcinoma has been disappointing. In rare patients, the 
cancer has spontaneously disappeared. This has suggested that an 
individual patient's immune system can be capable of fighting the 
cancer. For these reasons, novel treatments that can increase an 
individual's immune response against his/her melanoma or renal 
cell carcinoma are being studied. 
The purpose of this study is to evaluate a vaccine made as a 
result of the new technique called gene therapy. The vaccine is 
made from tumor cells that have been altered by gene therapy in 
order to make interleukin-2 (IL-2) . Interleukin-2 is a protein 
made by certain blood cells that can stimulate an immune 
response. ^In earlier studies cancer patients have received large 
doses of IL-2 . Some of these patients had reductions in the size 
or number of their tumors. Most of them experienced side effects, 
sometimes severe. Many of the side effects were a result of using 
very high doses. This new technique will use much smaller doses 
of interleukin-2 to stimulate the immune system to fight the 
tumor . 
The tumor cells used to make the vaccines are stored tumor 
cells from patients with melanoma or renal cell carcinoma. These 
cells have a protein called HLA-A2 expressed on the cell surface. 
Patients will be eligible who express the same protein on their 
tumor cells. These tumor cells have been induced to produce 
interleukin-2 by gene therapy. Now, these altered cells can make 
IL-2 and will be x-rayed to prevent their growth of the tumor 
cells. These IL-2 secreting tumor cells will be injected in the 
skin of the thigh of eligible patients. 
In this way lymphocytes which have the capability to kill 
the tumor hopefully are stimulated in vivo. By having access to 
the systemic blood circulation these lymphocytes can travel to 
other sides in the body to fight residual tumor. 
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Recombinant DNA Research, Volume 15 
