One approach has been to use autologous tumor cell vaccines. This has the advantage of exploiting the full complement of TAAs of a patient s tumor without specifically identifying these TAAs, and there is a complete HLA match. With this approach, various manipulations including transfection of genes of immunologic importance are performed on the autologous tumor cells to enhance their immunogenicity. In the case of RCC, several clinical trials employing the use of autologous tumor cell vaccines have been conducted. Some trials have used unmanipulated autologous tumor cell vaccines.
T cells require two signals to become activated.
When a T cell receives the first signal in the absence of the co-stimulatory signal, it is rendered anergic. Summary of rationale for immunization strategy. When injected into patients, it is hypothesized that TAA-specific CTLs will be activated since the required signaling through the TCR and CD28 can occur. In addition to being rendered functionally activated, IL-2 receptors will be expressed. Once activated, the CTLs can migrate to metastatic deposits and kill the unmodified tumor cells since B7-1 is not required for effector function.