Abstract IA25: Immunotherapy opportunities and challenges in ovarian cancer

Abstract

Abstract Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells are antigenic and express a multitude of proteins that have been validated as known tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) including Her-2/neu, p53, NY-ESO-1, cdr2, hTERT, mesothelin, survivin, SP-17, WT1 and others. Clinical data indicate that the immune system affects the outcome of patients with EOC; the presence of intraepithelial tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes correlates with improved progression-free and overall survival, as shown by numerous correlative studies conducted on hundreds of ovarian cancer samples. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) isolated from ovarian cancers are oligoclonal, recognize autologous tumor, are specific to known TAAs ex vivo, and exhibit tumor-specific cytolytic activity. Tumor-specific T-cell precursors can also be detected in the blood of patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma. These observations suggest that activation of antitumor immunity could be feasible and could produce clinical results in patients with EOC. To date, immunotherapy investigations with intraperitoneal IL-2 infusion, CTLA-4 antibody, vaccines using NY-ESO-1 peptide, virus-modified autologous tumor cells, or dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with whole autologous tumor lysate have yielded limited but encouraging results in EOC. We will review lessons from previous studies and will discuss various opportunities and challenges in the development of effective immunotherapy for EOC. Citation Format: George Coukos. Immunotherapy opportunities and challenges in ovarian cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research: From Concept to Clinic; Sep 18-21, 2013; Miami, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2013;19(19 Suppl):Abstract nr IA25.