Safety Study of a Dendritic Cell-based Cancer Vaccine in Melanoma

GeniusVac-Mel4 is a drug product composed of an irradiated allogeneic plasmacytoid dendritic cell (PDC) line loaded with 4 melanoma peptides derived from Melan-A, gp100, Tyrosinase or Mage-A3. This cell line is HLA-A\*02:01, a phenotype found in 40% of the European population. This approach exploits the PDC line high capacity of boosting anti-tumor cytotoxic response against melanoma antigens in HLA-A\*02:01 melanoma patients. In the preclinical studies, a strong proof of concept was brought. Indeed, the GeniusVac-Mel4 capacity to induce high number of cytotoxic antitumor T-cells was shown in melanoma model, both in vivo in humanized mice and ex vivo with patients' PBMC (peripheral blood mononuclear cells) (Aspord et al 2010 and 2012). It is planned to include patients in three dose-escalating groups (4, 20, 60 millions of GeniusVac-Mel4 cells). At least, 3 patients will be recruited in each dose group of the trial.