Recruitment of dendritic cells and enhanced antigen-specific immune reactivity in cancer patients treated with hr-GM-CSF (Molgramostim) and hr-IL-2

Second-line treatment of non small cell lung cancer by biweekly gemcitabine and docetaxel +/- granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and low dose aldesleukine

“…An immunocytofluorimetric analysis confirmed the previous observations that PBMCs of patients who had received at least two cycles of chemotherapy plus IG-1 regimen showed an increased expression of activated DCs (15.5% +/-2.2 vs. 0.5% +/-1.25; p < 0.04) with a CD34 + CD82 + CD83 + HLA-DR + immunophenotype. 20,21 As described in the previous study, we observed increased proliferative response to influenza virosomes (proliferative index was 15. We then evaluated for either arm the effects of the treatment on lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, basophil and activated lymphocyte (mononuclear cells) blood counts ( Fig.…”

“…14 The ex-vivo evaluation of patients' PBMCs confirmed the ability of IG-1 regimen of increasing and activating peripheral DCs, enhancing their antigen presenting ability and promoting a Th1 cytotoxic T cell phenotype, as shown in previous studies. 20,21 Further biological monitoring revealed a moderate increase of lymphocyte and monocyte populations in either groups of patients, while in the immunoadjuvant arm it was observed the appearance and rise of activated mononuclear cells, a sub-set of large lymphocytes full of granules which are usually observed during acute viral or bacterial infections. These effector lymphocytes with cytotoxic phenotype, if directed against the neoplastic cells, could effectively contribute to the antitumor activity of the treatment.…”

“…This regimen, called as IG-1, has been evaluated in previous studies, alone and in combination with G-based polychemotherapy, resulting safe and able of producing significant immune-adjuvant activity in cancer patients. 20,21 On the basis of available data, we randomly allocated patients to receive or not the immunoadjuvant treatment with GM-CSF and IL-2, according to the IG-1 regimen, in order to investigate the potential impact of these cytokines on the biological activity of GD chemotherapy, as well as the safety of this combined approach.…”

A randomized study comparing filgrastim versus lenograstim versus molgramostim plus chemotherapy for peripheral blood progenitor cell mobilization

“…Grade 4 neutropenia occurred in 72 (70%) patients: 28 (74%) in the filgrastim arm, 19 (53%) the lenograstim arm and 25 (86%) in the molgramostim, respectively. Median duration to recovery of ANC40.5 Â 10 9 /l was 4 days (range, 1-18) in the filgrastim arm, 3 days (range, 1-15) in the lenograstim arm and 6 days (range, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] in the molgramostim arm. The difference among the three treatment arms was statistically significant in favor of lenograstim for both parameters: frequency and duration of neutropenia (P ¼ 0.001 and 0.0005, respectively).…”

“…6 GM-CSF has been used in this context with satisfying results on PBPC harvesting and possible reduction of duration of thrombocytopenia and mucositis. [7][8][9][10] We conducted a prospective randomized study to compare the mobilizing efficacy of two forms of G-CSF, one non-glycosylated (filgrastim) and one glycosylated (lenograstim), and a non-glycosylated form of GM-CSF (molgramostim), following administration of a disease-specific chemotherapy. We evaluated number of CD34 þ cells, the subtypes CD34 þ /CD33À, CD34 þ / CD38À and CD34 þ /Thy1 þ harvested, and time to hemopoietic recovery of absolute neutrophil count (ANC)4500/ml and platelets 420 000/ml after mobilizing chemotherapy.…”