Autologous hybrid cell fusion vaccine in a spontaneous intermediate model of breast carcinoma

Breast cancer is among the most common malignancies affecting women and reproductivelyintact female dogs, resulting in death from metastatic disease if not treated effectively. Tobetter manage the disease progression, canine mammary tumor (CMT) cells derived frommalignant canine mammary cancers were fused to autologous dendritic cells (DCs) toproduce living hybrid-cell fusion vaccines for canine patients diagnosed with spontaneousmammary carcinoma. The high-speed sorting of rare autologous canine patient DCs fromthe peripheral blood provides the autologous component of fusion vaccines, and fusion tomajor histocompatibility complex-unmatched CMT cells were produced at high rates. Thevaccinations were delivered to each patient following a surgical resection 3 times at 3-weekintervals in combination with immuno-stimulatory oligonucleotides and Gemcitabineadjunct therapy. The immunized patient animals survived 3.3-times longer (median survival611 days) than the control patients (median survival 184 days) and also appeared to exhibit anenhanced quality of life. A comparison of vaccinated patients diagnosed with inflammatorymammary carcinoma resulted in a very short median survival (42 days), suggesting no effectof vaccination. The data showed that the development of autologous living DC-based vaccinestrategies in patient animals designed to improve the management of canine mammarycarcinoma can be successful and may allow an identification of the antigens that can betranslatable to promote effective immunity in canine and human patients.