UCSF has been named part of an international program to begin the final testing of a vaccine used to treat the deadly skin cancer, melanoma.

As part of the program, physicians from UCSF will join researchers from the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, and researchers from 31 international locations, including Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Israel.

UCSF will begin Phase III testing of the unique vaccine in patients with Stage IV melanoma that has advanced to other parts of the body. The study will determine how well the vaccine prolongs survival in patients with relapsed melanoma.

"This is a very important study because it is examining a biological and minimally toxic treatment that may potentially prevent melanoma from recurring in people who have already experienced at least one relapse of the cancer," said Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, UCSF clinical instructor of dermatology and co-director of the UCSF Melanoma Center.

The vaccine works by stimulating the body's immune system to fight the cancer. Through extensive research, scientists have learned that only three types of cancer cells arouse the immune system's best and broadest response. Radiation is used to weaken live cells, which are harvested from other patients and grown in the laboratory and combined with a special bacteria to form the vaccine. The vaccine is then injected into the melanoma patient.

The five-year trial will compare the outcome of patients who receive the vaccine with patients who only receive the special bacteria that is used to make the vaccine. This is the final step toward Food and Drug Administration approval to make the vaccine widely available.

In patients treated so far, a strong immune response has been triggered in 90 percent of the cases. To date, more than 1,500 people have received the vaccine treatment. Earlier trials found the vaccine to be a potentially effective treatment for metastatic melanoma, which is skin cancer after it has spread to other areas of the body.

Researchers believe that if the melanoma vaccine is proven effective in this final phase of testing, it may become a model for treating all solid cancers. Because it contains 13 other antigens (cell proteins that alert the body's disease-fighting white blood cells) shared by cancers of the breast, colon, lung and prostate, it may be a treatment for these cancers as well, researchers said.

The study is sponsored by a $26.8 million grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and is one of the largest grants funded by the NCI in the last 12 months for a clinical cancer study.

UCSF is looking for patients to participate in the clinical trials of the melanoma vaccine. Individuals must have been diagnosed with melanoma and have experienced a relapse of the cancer. Those interested in learning more about the program or participating in the study should contact the UCSF Melanoma Center at 885-7546.

By Abby Sinnott

1st appeared 4/13/98

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