Long Overall Survival After Dendritic Cell Vaccination in Metastatic Uveal Melanoma Patients

PURPOSE: To assess the safety and efficacy of dendritic cell vaccination in metastatic uveal melanoma. DESIGN: Interventional case series. METHODS: We analyzed 14 patients with metastatic uveal melanoma treated with dendritic cell vaccination. Patients with metastatic uveal melanoma received at least 3 vaccinations with autologous dendritic cells, professional antigen-presenting cells loaded with melanoma antigens gp100 and tyrosinase. The main outcome measures were safety, immunologic response, and overall survival. RESULTS: Tumor-specific immune responses were induced with dendritic cell vaccination in 4 (29%) of 14 patients. Dendritic cell-vaccinated patients showed a median overall survival with metastatic disease of 19.2 months, relatively long compared with that reported in the literature. No severe treatment-related toxicities (common toxicity criteria grade 3 or 4) were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Dendritic cell vaccination is feasible and safe in metastatic uveal melanoma. Dendritic based immunotherapy is potent to enhance the host's antitumor immunity against uveal melanoma in approximately one third of patients. Compared with other prospective studies with similar inclusion criteria, dendritic cell vaccination may be associated with longer than average overall survival in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).