Stem Cell Transplant, Chemotherapy, and Biological Therapy in Treating Patients With High-Risk or Refractory Multiple Myeloma

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• To evaluate the safety of combination immunotherapy using activated T-cells and an hTERT/survivin multipeptide vaccine in the post-autotransplant (autologous stem cell transplantation) setting and whether it delays hematopoietic recovery or induces autoimmune events.
• To determine whether the strategy of infusing vaccine-primed T-cells early after transplant in conjunction with post-transplant booster immunizations leads to the induction of cellular immune responses to the putative tumor antigens hTERT ( the catalytic subunit of telomerase) and survivin.
• To determine if combination immunotherapy as delivered to arm I patients increases the frequency of delayed paraprotein responses between 60 days and 6 months post-transplant, sufficient to upgrade the maximal level of myeloma response, when compared to non-vaccinated (arm II) patients.

Secondary

• To determine if adoptive transfer of hTERT/survivin-primed T-cells in conjunction with multi-peptide booster immunizations generates cytotoxic T-cell responses to autologous myeloma cells in vivo.
• To evaluate myeloma clinical responses including the frequency of complete and partial responses and the 1 \& 2-year event-free and overall survivals.
• To measure antibody responses to 4 of the 7 serotypes contained in the pneumococcal polyvalent vaccine as well as T-cell responses to the CRM-197 carrier protein and to a CMV peptide antigen.
• To evaluate levels of hTERT and survivin expression in patient myeloma cells.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to HLA-A2 status (positive vs negative). Patients are assigned to 1 of 2 treatment groups based on stratification.

• Immunization 1:
• Group 1 (HLA-A2 positive): Patients receive the following peptides emulsified in incomplete Freund's adjuvant VG: I) hTERT I540 peptide; ii) hTERT R572Y peptide; iii) hTERT D988Y peptide; iv) survivin Sur1M2 peptide ; and v) CMV control peptide N495 subcutaneously (SC). Patients also receive sargramostim (GM-CSF) SC and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) intramuscularly (IM).
• Group 2: Patients receive PCV vaccine IM and GM-CSF SC.
• Steady-state T-cell harvesting:About 10 days (range 7-14) after immunization #1, all patients undergo a mononuclear cell apheresis procedure to collect steady-state T-cells that are cryopreserved for later expansion.
• Stem cell mobilization: After completion of the mononuclear cell apheresis procedure, all patients are offered DT-PACE chemotherapy for cytoreduction and stem cell mobilization. This regimen is as follows: dexamethasone once daily for 4 days; thalidomide once daily for 4 days; cisplatin IV continuously over 4 days (patients with serum creatinine levels ≥ 2.0 mg/dL do not receive cisplatin); doxorubicin hydrochloride IV continuously over 4 days; cyclophosphamide IV continuously over 4 days; etoposide IV continuously over 4 days. Patients also receive filgrastim (G-CSF) SC once daily starting on the day after completion of chemotherapy. An acceptable alternative for stem cell mobilization is to use cyclophosphamide IV over 12 hours or, for patients who require that outpatient stem cell mobilization procedures be performed, cyclophosphamide IV over 2 hours. The cyclophosphamide mobilization regimen should be used if the patient has already received DTPACE as part of the pre-transplant therapy.
• High-dose therapy: High-dose therapy will consist of melphalan IV over 20 minutes on day -1. Autologous stem cell infusion takes place on day 0, at least 18 hours after the administration of the high-dose melphalan. Stem cells are infused IV over 20-60 minutes. G-CSF SC should be administered beginning on day +5.
• Autologous T-cell expansion and infusion: Cryopreserved cells are expanded ex vivo for up to 12 days and prepared for infusion on day 2 post-transplant.
• Infusion of autologous T-cells: The costimulated ("activated") T-cells are infused over 20-60 minutes on day +2 of transplant.
• Immunizations 2, 3, and 4:
• Group 1: On days 14, 42, and 90 post-transplant, patients receive peptides, PCV, and GM-CSF as in group I of immunization # 1.
• Group 2: On day 14, 42, 90 post-transplant, patients receive PCV and GM-CSF as in group II of immunization # 1.
• Maintenance therapy: At day 180 post-transplant, after completion of post-transplant immunological assessments, patients receive low-dose thalidomide in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Blood is collected at T-cell harvest and days 14, 60, 100, and 180 post-transplant. Samples are analyzed by quantitative CD3/CD4/CD8 studies, cellular immunoassays, antibody immunoassays, and gene expression.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically.