Conditions: Melanoma Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin Sarcoma of the Skin Basal Cell Cancer of the Skin Breast Cancer
Keywords: Autologous Vaccination Intratumoral Injections Intramuscular Injections Advanced Accessible Solid Tumors Poly-ICLC Phase II Clinical Trial Safety Efficacy Autovaccination In Situ Host Targeted Strategy Overall Survival Immunotherapy Adjuvant
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 8
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to test the safety of a course of injections containing Poly-ICLC in patients with advanced solid tumors that can be easily and safely reached with a needle.

Poly-ICLC is a compound that has been used to help the body in its fight against cancer.

Detailed description:
We hypothesize that this therapeutic in-situ autovaccination strategy is comprised of three immunomodulatory steps. The first is the innate immune local tumor killing induced by intratumoral Hiltonol (via NK, TNF, etc). A very close second step is optimal Th1-weighted priming through the in-situ combination of the poly-ICLC danger signal with the tumor antigens released in step 1 and further processed and cross-presented by poly-ICLC activated mDC, etc. The repeated administration of the Hiltonol danger signal IT in the context of the patient's own tumor antigens and in a way that mimics a natural viral infection may be critical to this step. Once the system is optimally primed, the third step is targeting and maintenance of the immune response and its facilitation at remote tumor sites with IM poly-ICLC through chemokine release, inflammasome activation and other costimulatory factors.

Arms:
arm 1: Enrolled patients will receive two cycles of Poly-ICLC treatment. Each priming (intratumoral injections - IT) and boosting (intramuscular injections - IM) treatment course will constitute one cycle.

Interventions: intervention 1: Poly-ICLC
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Cycle 1-Weeks 1 and 2: 1mg Poly-ICLC intratumoral (IT) injections (t=6) into same lesion over 2 weeks.

Weeks 3-9: 1mg Poly-ICLC 2x/week intramuscularly (IM) into thighs or upper arms.

Week 10: No treatment. CT scan of chest, abdomen, pelvis and extremities or neck; possible MRI brain scan.

Cycle 2-Weeks 11 and 12: 1mg Poly-ICLC IT injections (t=6) into same lesion over 2 weeks.

Weeks 13-19 - 1mg Poly-ICLC 2x/weekly IM in thighs or upper arms.

Weeks 20-26: no treatment. Week 26, evaluate response in absence of inflammation.

Maintenance - Weeks 27-36: For patients with stable disease or response; IM poly-ICLC injections; evaluation of clinical and immune response. Week 38 repeat tumor assessment, optional biopsy

Follow Up via phone every 3 months for 30months, after completion of treatments.

Protocol document: