Treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic B-Leukemia With IL-2 and CD-40 Autologous Tumor Cells

Patients may be treated with a minimum of three up to six injections of their IL-2-secreting and CD40L-expressing autologous B-CLL cells, separated by one to two weeks in an immunological treatment window, i.e. in the absence of concurrent cytotoxic therapy. Any patient whose disease regresses after the administration of 6 injections may be offered further injections (i.e. more than 6 injections) of tumor vaccine at the dose level previously administered, if enough vaccines are available. Patients will receive a fixed dose of IL-2 secreting B-CLL cells throughout the entire treatment protocol (see Section 5.8), determined by previous studies in acute leukemia and in neuroblastoma, in which this level of IL-2 production has been safe. The dose escalation of CD40L-expressing cells is designed to reach the IL2/CD40L ratio shown to be effective in our preclinical models of neuroblastoma and lymphoma.