Treatment and outcomes of non-small-cell lung cancer patients with high comorbidity.

Background: The life expectancy of untreated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is dismal, while treatment for NSCLC improves survival. The presence of comorbidities is thought to play a significant role in the decision to treat or not treat a given patient. We aim to evaluate the association of comorbidities with the survival of patients treated for NSCLC.

Primary tumor cells resected from cancer patients and decorated with a novel form of CD80 protein serve as effective antigen-presenting cells for the induction of autologous T cell immune responses ex vivo.

Vaccination with autologous tumor cells genetically modified to express costimulatory molecules has shown utility for cancer immunotherapy in preclinical and limited clinical settings. Given the complicated nature of gene therapy, a practical alternative approach has been designed that relies on modification of the cell membrane with biotin and its "decoration" with a chimeric protein composed of the functional portion of human CD80 and core streptavidin (CD80-SA). We tested whether primary tumor cells resected from cancer patients can be decorated with CD80-SA and whether such cells serve as antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to generate autologous T cell responses ex vivo.