Pilot Study of Interferon Alfa for Patients Who Have Received Cancer Vaccines
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2008-05-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This research study is for people who have previously received cancer vaccines. The
investigators are testing a form of therapy known as interferon alfa-2a, which is
commercially available as the drug Roferon®-A, to see if it can be used to help boost the
effects of the cancer vaccine and help the immune system attack the cancer.
It is believed that the body's immune system can attack tumor cells and kill them. This is
thought to be due to immune cells called T cells which can recognize special proteins on the
surface of tumors as a signal to fight the cancer. However, the vaccine may not work very
well if the protein signal is too weak for the T cells to find your tumors. The investigators
think that interferon alfa-2a can signal the cancer cells in the body to make more proteins
that may allow the T cells to recognize and kill the cancer cells better.