Effective induction of cytotoxic T cells recognizing an epitope peptide derived from hypoxia-inducible protein 2 (HIG2) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

PURPOSE: Through genome-wide expression profile analysis, hypoxia-inducible protein 2 (HIG2) has previously been identified as an oncoprotein involved in development/progression of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We subsequently identified a highly immunogenic HLA-A*0201/0206-restricted epitope peptide (HIG2-9-4) corresponding to a part of HIG2 and applied it as a therapeutic vaccine. We conducted a phase I clinical trial using the HIG2-9-4 peptide for patients with advanced RCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine patients having HLA-A*0201 or HLA-A*0206 with metastatic or unresectable RCC after failure of the cytokine and/or tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies were enrolled in this study. The patients received subcutaneous administration of the peptide as an emulsion form with Montanide ISA-51 VG once a week in a dose-escalation manner (doses of 0.5, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/body, 3 patients for each dose). The primary endpoint was safety, and the secondary endpoints were immunological and clinical responses. RESULTS: Vaccinations with HIG2-9-4 peptide could be well tolerated without any serious systemic adverse events. Peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses were detected in eight of the nine patients. Doses of 1.0 or 3.0 mg/body seemed to induce a CTL response better than did a dose of 0.5 mg/body, although the number of patients was too small to draw a firm conclusion. The disease control rate (stable disease for ≥4 months) was 77.8 %, and the median progression-free survival time was 10.3 months. CONCLUSIONS: HIG2-9-4 peptide vaccine treatment was tolerable and effectively induced peptide-specific CTLs in RCC patients. This novel peptide vaccine therapy for RCC is promising.