BACKGROUND:
* Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a stimulatory cytokine with a number of desirable immunotherapeutic features, and clinical trials evaluating recombinant human interleukin-15 (rhIL-15) are underway.
* In contrast to IL-2, IL-15 treatment does not stimulate activation-induced cell death of T-cells; potentially inhibits immunosuppressive cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) + Interleukin-2 receptor alpha chain (CD25) + T regulatory cells, contributes to the proliferation, differentiation and activation of CD8+ T-cells and NK-cells and the maintenance of long-term cluster of differentiation 8 (CD8) + memory T-cells.
* IL-15 is active in a number of syngeneic mouse preclinical tumor models, and vaccinia-based constructs expressing IL-15 induced long-lasting, high-avidity cytotoxic CD8+ T-lymphocyte response that appears to be more effective than similar IL-2 expressing vaccines.
* Pharmacology/toxicology (pharm/tox) experiments in non-human primate (NHP) rhesus macaques and preliminary results from the first-in-human phase I trial examining rhIL-15 given as an intravenous (IV) bolus (IVB) for 12 consecutive days indicate significant stimulation and expansion of NK-cells and CD8+ T-cells.
* rhIL-15 given as an IVB at 1 mcg/kg dose level appears to be well tolerated despite the presence of some common cytokine-related side effects indicating that 0.1 mcg/kg/day is an appropriate initial dose level for a phase I safety trial of continuous intravenous infusion (CIV) of rhIL-15.
* Comparison of the pharmacokinetic and immunologic assessments from the IVB phase I trial with the data from both sets of NHP pharm/tox experiments suggest that continuous intravenous (CIV) of rhIL-15 may have greater potential for stimulating an anticancer cellular immune response with a more manageable safety profile.
OBJECTIVES:
Primary Objective:
\- Determine the safety, toxicity profile, dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of rhIL-15 administered as a CIV for 10 consecutive days (240 hours) in subjects with metastatic unresectable cancers for which curative or palliative measures either do not exist or are not associated with a survival advantage.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:
* Patients greater than or equal to18 years-old, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) less than or equal to 1, with pathologically confirmed metastatic unresectable cancers for which curative or palliative measures either do not exist or are not associated with a survival advantage.
* Patients with measurable or evaluable disease, normal organ and bone marrow function.
DESIGN:
* This is a single-institution, open-label, non-randomized 3 + 3 design phase I dose escalation study.
* Groups of 3 to 6 subjects will receive CIV rhIL-15 at doses of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 mcg/kg/day for 10 days provided that DLT has not been observed.
* After assessments of the 10-day dosing cohorts have been completed, new groups of 3 to 6 subjects will receive CIV rhIL-15 at doses of 3, 4 and 5 mcg/kg/day for 5 days provided that a DLT has not been observed.
* Patients with evidence of response and the absence of significant toxicities will be eligible for repeat cycles of treatment.
* Samples for correlative studies will be obtained prior to treatment and at specific times points during and after treatment to assess pharmacokinetics of rhIL-15, the effect of rhIL-15 on immune cell subset populations and pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the peripheral blood and for the development of neutralizing anti-rhIL-15 antibodies.
