Combination Immunotherapy of GM.CD40L Vaccine With CCL21 in Lung Cancer

The vaccine will be made by mixing two kinds of cells: 1) some lung cancer cells, which have been grown in the lab, and 2) experimental "bystander (present but not taking part in the immune response)" cells. All the cells in the vaccine will be treated with high-dose X-rays to make sure that none of them grow and cause more cancer. The bystander cells are human cells that have been genetically changed to express GM-CSF and CD40L. These are called "GM.CD40L". (That is the original cells, called K562, with the genes for human GM-CSF and CD40L inserted into them). These changes are designed to help boost the participants' immune system to better fight the cancer in their body. GM-CSF is a hormone that is known to stimulate bone marrow to make more white blood cells. CCL21 is a chemokine (protein) that helps to recruit T cells (a type of white blood cell that helps to protect the body from infections) and leads to hyper-responsive T cells. This leads to heightened immune responses when T cells are exposed to both CCL21 and antigen (a substance that when introduced into the body lead to production of an antibody)-presenting cells (A cell that can "present" antigen in a form that T cells can recognize it ). The induction of a strong cell-mediated immune response is the type of immunity expected to be most involved in controlling cancer cell growth. A randomized trial of a vaccine consisting of the GM.CD40L bystander cells and an equivalent number of allogeneic (taken from different individuals) tumor cells plus or minus CCL21 is proposed.