Prostate cancers are a major cause of death in U. S. males. Treatment options for patients with tumors that have spread beyond the prostate gland are limited and largely palliative. Our laboratory is developing novel immunotherapy strategies to improve the outcome for patients with advanced prostate tumors and early stage prostate tumors that are highly disposed to progress. Our efforts are directed towards the induction of autoimmune responses against prostatic tissues that will act to destroy prostate cancer cells. The laboratory is focused on delineating therapeutically relevant antigens derived from common prostate-specific tissue antigens, including prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific membrane antigen. These antigens ultimately will be used to directly inoculate appropriate patients (vaccine therapy) or to externally grow then reinfuse patient=s own white blood cells with anti-prostate cancer cell activity (adoptive T cell therapy). Prostate-specific autoimmune therapy should be especially useful for patients who have undergone prior prostatectomy and, therefore, are unlikely to develop toxic effects from the induction or infusion of prostate-reactive T cells, i.e., patients= T cells should only react against their prostate tumor cells. |
