Therapeutic Vaccine for Prostate Cancer

Cancer of the prostate is a serious health problem both in the US and worldwide. In the US alone ap165,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year (Cancer Statistics 12993, CA Cancer J.new types of treatments such as immunotherapy should be considered. The purpose of the present studypossibility of inducing cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses to prostate-related antigens as a meaantigen-specific immunotherapies for prostate cancer. Potential CTL antigenic epitopes have been idesequences of PSA and PAP. The identification of these potential CTL epitopes was achieved by selectiPSA and PAP that contain anchor binding motifs for MHC class I molecules. Several of these peptidesaffinity to purified MHC molecules. The ultimate goal of the Phase I study is to identify the immunorestricted peptides from PSA and PAP that are capable of eliciting CTL that will kill cells expressiproteins. If funded, the Phase II studies will be targeted to develop this peptide(s) into a CTL-indfor treatment of advanced prostate cancer.