Vaccination with patient-specific tumor-derived antigen in first remission improves disease-free survival in follicular lymphoma.

Purpose: Vaccination with hybridoma-derived autologous tumor immunoglobulin (Ig) idiotype (Id) conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) and administered with granulocyte-monocyte colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) induces follicular lymphoma (FL) -specific immune responses. To determine the clinical benefit of this vaccine, we conducted a double-blind multicenter controlled phase III trial.

Patients And Methods: Treatment-naive patients with advanced stage FL achieving complete response (CR) or CR unconfirmed (CRu) after chemotherapy were randomly assigned two to one to receive either Id vaccine (Id-KLH + GM-CSF) or control (KLH + GM-CSF).

Pegfilgrastim appears equivalent to daily dosing of filgrastim to treat neutropenia after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Background: Filgrastim decreases the time to neutrophil recovery after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). We hypothesized that single-dose pegfilgrastim would mimic multiple daily doses of filgrastim, resulting in an equivalent shortening of post-PBSCT neutropenia.

Patients And Methods: Patients who were eligible for PBSCT and aged >or= 18 years were identified before high-dose chemotherapy, after the harvesting and cryopreservation of peripheral blood progenitor cells (ie, > 2.

Low-dose weekly paclitaxel for recurrent or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Background: Many patients with recurrent, intermediate or high-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) may not respond to or are not candidates for aggressive salvage chemotherapy. Effective, less toxic regimens are needed. Although high-dose taxanes have not been reported to be very effective for the treatment of lymphoma, different delivery rates may allow for different mechanisms of action to be manifest and result in a different toxicity profile and response rate.

A novel approach toward development of a rapid blood test for breast cancer.

Mammography remains the diagnostic test of choice for breast cancer, but 20% of cancers still go undetected. Many serum biomarkers have been reported for breast cancer but none have proven to represent effective diagnostic strategies. ProteinChip mass spectrometry is an innovative technology that searches the proteome for differentially expressed proteins, allowing for the creation of a panel or profile of biomarkers.