Ovarian Dendritic Cell Vaccine Trial

Patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma who have failed initial curative chemotherapy attempts will be evaluated at the time of relapse for tumor debulking surgery prior to the initiation of salvage chemotherapy. If appropriate, samples will be collected for tumor lysate preparation for vaccination as per the existing Loyola protocol. Lysates may also be produced by the collection of malignant effusions as performed for palliation of symptoms. Patients will then receive palliative chemotherapy to a maximum tumor cytoreduction. Patients from whom sufficient tumor cells have been collected for DC-based vaccine production will undergo a leukapheresis for DC cell production. Once completed, these patients will receive a DC vaccination with 1 x 106 tumor lysate and KLH-loaded immature DCs into inguinal nodes identified by ultrasound guidance for a total of three injections at two week intervals; or for those who are HLA-A2 restricted with pharmaceutical grade MUC1 and WT1 tumor peptides.