Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation is currently restricted to hematological malignancies because of a lack of anti-tumor activity against solid cancers. We have tested a novel treatment strategy to stimulate specific anti-tumor activity against a solid tumor after transplantation by vaccination with irradiated tumor cells engineered to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Using the B16 melanoma model, we found that vaccination elicited potent anti-tumor activity in recipients of syngeneic bone marrow transplantation in a time dependent fashion, and that immune reconstitution was critical for the development of anti-tumor activity. Vaccination did not stimulate anti-tumor immunity after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation because of the post-transplantation immunodeficiency associated with graft-versus-host disease. Remarkably, vaccination was effective in stimulating potent and long-lasting anti-tumor activity in recipients of T cell-depleted allogeneic bone marrow. Thus T cells derived from donor stem cells were able to recognize tumor antigens even though they remained tolerant to host histocompatibility antigens. Donor leukocyte infusion from a donor immunized with the recipient-derived B16 vaccines enhanced clinical activity of tumor vaccines without exacerbating graft-versus-host disease and CD4+ T cells are essential for this enhancement. These results demonstrate that vaccination of both donors and recipients can stimulate potent anti-tumor effects without the induction of graft-versus-host disease, and this strategy has important implications for the treatment of patients with solid malignancies.
Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; bone marrow transplantation; graft-versus-host disease; graft-versus-tumor; cancer vaccination; T cell-depletion; donor leukocyte infusions