title: Vaccination of multiple myeloma: Current strategies and future prospects.
abstract: Tumor immunotherapy holds great promise in controlling multiple myeloma (MM) and may provide an alternative treatment modality to conventional chemotherapy for MM patients. For this reason, a major area of investigation is the development of cancer vaccines to generate myeloma-specific immunity. Several antigens that are able to induce specific T-cell responses are involved in different critical mechanisms for cell differentiation, inhibition of apoptosis, demethylation and proliferation. Strategies under development include infusion of vaccine-primed and ex vivo expanded/costimulated autologous T cells after high-dose melphalan, genetic engineering of autologous T cells with receptors for myeloma-specific epitopes, administration of dendritic cell/plasma cell fusions and administration expanded marrow-infiltrating lymphocytes. In addition, novel immunomodulatory drugs may synergize with immunotherapies. The task ahead is to evaluate these approaches in appropriate clinical settings, and to couple them with strategies to overcome mechanisms of immunoparesis as a means to induce more robust clinically significant immune responses.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy. Electronic address: aallegra@unime.it.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Allegra
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Penna
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Innao
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Greve
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Maisano
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Department of General Surgery, Oncology and Pathological Anatomy-University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Musolino
mesh_terms: D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000628:therapy*; D014611:Vaccination
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines
keywords: Cell-based vaccines; Cytotoxic T lymphocytes; Idiotype vaccination; Immunoparesis; Multiple myeloma; Vaccination