Vaccine Therapy in Preventing Cancer Recurrence in Patients With Non-Metastatic, Node Positive, HER2 Negative Breast Cancer That is in Remission (WOKVAC)

A Phase I Trial of the Safety and Immunogenicity of a DNA Plasmid Based Vaccine (WOKVAC) Encoding Epitopes Derived From Three Breast Cancer Antigens (IGFBP-2, HER2, and IGF-1R) in Patients With Breast Cancer

This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of a vaccine therapy in preventing cancer from coming back in patients with non-metastatic, node positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2 negative breast cancer in which all signs and symptoms have disappeared. Vaccines made from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) may help the body build an effective immune response to kill tumor cells. Giving multiple vaccinations may make a stronger immune response and prevent or delay the return of cancer.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stage II Breast Cancer; Stage IIIA Breast Cancer; Stage IIIB Breast Cancer; Stage IB Breast Cancer; Stage IIA Breast Cancer; Stage IIB Breast Cancer; Stage IIIC Breast Cancer; HER2/Neu Negative; Stage III Breast Cancer; No Evidence of Disease; One or More Positive Axillary Nodes
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Laboratory Biomarker Analysis; Biological: Sargramostim; Biological: pUMVC3-IGFBP2-HER2-IGF1R Plasmid DNA Vaccine

Detailed Description

OUTLINE: This is a dose escalation study of WOKVAC.

Patients receive WOKVAC with sargramostim intradermally (ID) on day 1. Courses repeat every 28 days for up to 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) will have vaccine administered to the contralateral arm. Patients with bilateral ALND will have vaccine administered in the thigh. As much as possible each vaccine dose will be given within the same draining lymph node site. Patients will be monitored for a minimum of 60 minutes post vaccine administration.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 1 month, 6 months and annually for up to 5 years thereafter.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 32
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98109
      • Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium
  • Wisconsin
    • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53792
      • University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with non-metastatic, node positive, HER2 negative breast cancer, confirmed by pathology report, who are in remission and defined as having no evidence of disease (NED); HER2 negative is defined as

  • 0-1+ HER2 expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) OR
  • Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) negative OR
  • HER2 2+ and FISH negative
• Patients must be at least 28 days post cytotoxic chemotherapy, radiotherapy, monoclonal antibody and/or other biologic therapy, prior to enrollment; patients on bisphosphonates, denosumab, and/or endocrine therapy administered during the study are eligible and may continue throughout duration of study
• Patients must be at least 28 days post systemic steroids prior to enrollment
• Patients must have Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status score of =< 2
• White blood cell (WBC) >= 3000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin (Hgb) >= 10 g/dl
• Lymphocyte count >= 800/mm^3
• Platelet count >= 75,000/mm^3
• Serum creatinine =< 2.0 mg/dl or creatinine clearance > 60 ml/min
• Total bilirubin =< 1.5 mg/dl
• Aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) =< 2 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• Patients must have recovered from major infections and/or surgical procedures, and in the opinion of the investigator, not have any significant active concurrent medical illnesses precluding protocol treatment
• The effects of WOKVAC on the developing human fetus are unknown. For this reason, patients who are having sex that can lead to pregnancy must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal, barrier method of birth control, or abstinence) for the duration of study participation; should a woman become pregnant while participating in the study, she should inform her study doctor immediately and will not receive any more study treatment
• Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) results must be >= lower limit of normal (LLN) for institution performing based on results from the multi-gated acquisition (MUGA) or echocardiogram (ECHO) done at baseline
• Willing to not undergo any elective surgical procedure with general anesthesia or conscious sedation through the 1 month post-vaccination visit
• Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with any of the following cardiac conditions:

  • Symptomatic restrictive cardiomyopathy
  • Dilated cardiomyopathy
  • Unstable angina within 4 months prior to enrollment
  • New York Heart Association functional class III-IV heart failure on active treatment
  • Symptomatic pericardial effusion
• Patients may not be receiving any other investigational agents
• History of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to WOKVAC
• Patients with any contraindication or known hypersensitivity to receiving sargramostim (recombinant human granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor [rhuGM-CSF]) or other yeast based products
• Pregnant women are excluded from this study because WOKVAC is a vaccine agent with unknown potential for teratogenic or abortifacient effects. Because there is an unknown but potential risk for adverse events in nursing infants secondary to treatment of the mother with WOKVAC breastfeeding should be discontinued if the mother is treated with this vaccine
• History of diabetes
• Known history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C
• History of autoimmunity that has not been controlled with treatment in the last 12 months

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Treatment (WOKVAC with sargramostim); Patients receive WOKVAC with sargramostim ID on day 1. Courses repeat every 28 days for up to 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients with ALND will have vaccine administered to the contralateral arm. Patients with bilateral ALND will have vaccine administered in the thigh. As much as possible each vaccine dose will be given within the same draining lymph node site. Patients will be monitored for a minimum of 60 minutes post vaccine administration.

Other: Laboratory Biomarker Analysis; Correlative studies; Biological: Sargramostim; Given ID; Other Names: 23-L-Leucinecolony-Stimulating Factor 2; DRG-0012; Leukine; Prokine; rhu GM-CFS; Sagramostim; Sargramostatin; Biological: pUMVC3-IGFBP2-HER2-IGF1R Plasmid DNA Vaccine; Given ID; Other Names: pUMVC3-IGFBP2-HER2-IGF1R; pUMVC3-IGFBP2-HER2-IGF1R Vaccine; WOKVAC; WOKVAC Vaccine

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Adverse Events Per Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 4.0	Toxicities by grade that were related (possibly, probably or definitely) to the study vaccine noted during the immunization regimen will be summarized. This is done by arm, Grade and Attribution to study vaccine.	Up to 9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Assessment of IgG Antibodies	Immune response will be measured by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and serum antibody avidity to determine an avidity index before and after vaccination. Patients will be considered to have developed an antibody response if antigen specific IgG antibodies are both detectable and have moderate to high avidity.	Up to 4 months
Assessment of T Helper Th1:Th2 Ratio	IFN-g (Th1) and IL-10 (Th2) T-cells will be evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay. Patients will be considered to have developed a Th1 immune response as the sum IFN-Ɣ magnitude from all antigens to maximum response. This will be presented as a median fold change from baseline to the maximum response (1 or 6 months after vaccination).	Up to 9 months
Assessment of the Immunogenicity of WOKVAC by Generation of IGFBP-2, HER2, and IGF-1R Specific Type 1 (Th1) T- Cells	Immune responses will be measured by IFN-g enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay using blood (PBMC) represented by a maximum immune response generated to each antigen individually measured as corrected spots per well (cSPW). At the immune evaluations, each patient was given a value to indicate their immune response at both baseline and post vaccination. This data is represented by a median response, at both baseline (before vaccination) and 1 month or 6 months after the last vaccination of 3 vaccines (maximum response), to each of the 3 vaccine antigens HER2, IGFBP-2 or IGF1R.	Up to 24 weeks
Level of Antigen Specific Central and Effector Memory Phenotypes (Persistent Memory T Cell Response)	Assessed by flow cytometry of peripheral blood mononuclear cells using an established T-cell activation panel and summarized with mean and standard deviation or median and range over time.	Up to 6 months after the last vaccine
Modulation of Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cell Levels	Assessed by flow cytometry of peripheral blood mononuclear cells using an established myeloid derived suppressor cell/ regulatory T-cell panel and summarized with mean and standard deviation or median and range over time.	Up to 24 weeks
Modulation of T Regulatory Cell Levels	Assessed by flow cytometry of peripheral blood mononuclear cells using an established myeloid derived suppressor cell/ regulatory T-cell panel and summarized with median and range. FOXP3 is used to identify regulatory T cells, specifically CD4+ cells isolated from PBMC.	Up to 24 weeks

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in mammographic density assessed using clinically available images and the automated Cumulus software program	Summarized with mean and standard deviation or median and range at pre- and post-vaccination in tabular and graphical formats, along with the change from pre- to post-vaccination in a similar manner by dose level.	Up to 6 months after the last vaccine

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Washington
• Collaborators: National Cancer Institute (NCI); University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Kari Wisinski, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Disis ML, Gad E, Herendeen DR, Lai VP, Park KH, Cecil DL, O'Meara MM, Treuting PM, Lubet RA. A multiantigen vaccine targeting neu, IGFBP-2, and IGF-IR prevents tumor progression in mice with preinvasive breast disease. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2013 Dec;6(12):1273-82. doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-13-0182. Epub 2013 Oct 23.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 2, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 8, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): October 8, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 27, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 20, 2016
• First Posted (Estimated): May 23, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 19, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 23, 2024
• Last Verified: August 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Stage II; Stage III; Stage I
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Skin Diseases; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Breast Diseases; Breast Neoplasms; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Immunologic Factors; Vaccines; Sargramostim
• Other Study ID Numbers: 9626; P30CA014520 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract); N01-CN-2012-00033; N01CN00033 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract); NCI-2016-00581 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program)); UW14090; UWI4090 (Other Identifier: University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics); UWI2014-03-01 (Other Identifier: DCP); RG1716053 (Other Identifier: Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: The original intent of this study did not define a plan to make IPD available. We will follow the NCI policy.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No