Spotlight
Health Care: Vaccine Shows Promise
| USF Health
Dr. Douglas Reintgen was principal investigator for the USF study site.
Photo by Eric Younghans | USF Health
For patients with advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, a vaccine combined with a drug that boosts the body's immune system could hold new hope.
USF was among 21 centers nationwide participating in the Phase 3 clinical trial of the combination therapy — one of the most comprehensive studies of the therapy's effectiveness to date. Results of the trial, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, were published in the June 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the study, 185 patients with metastatic melanoma were randomly assigned to receive a peptide vaccine in combination with the immune-boosting drug interleukin-2, or interleukin-2 alone. The study found that patients who received the vaccine-drug combo had significantly higher response rates and improved disease-free and overall survival rates than patients who received the interleukin-2 alone. It is the first Phase 3 trial to clearly demonstrate a survival benefit in a vaccine for melanoma.
USF Health surgeon Dr. Douglas Reintgen, principal investigator for the USF site, hopes to see the combination treatment get FDA approval and be commercially available in about a year.