Biomedical subjects

Chien-Fu Hung

Publications and source records attributed to Chien-Fu Hung.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Vaccination of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients with tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells: a clinical trial.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common and rapidly progressing malignancy. Current treatment options for advanced HCC are limited. This clinical study of dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy for HCC enrolled 31 patients with advanced HCC. DCs, propagated from peripheral blood monocytes, were pulsed with autologous tumor lysates to treat HCC. The first 14 patients underwent pulsed therapy with five courses of DC vaccination intravenously at weekly intervals. The other 17 patients underwent monthly boost vaccinations after the initial pulsed therapy. Among the 31 patients, 4 (12.9%) exhibited partial response to DC vaccination. Seventeen patients (54.8%) had stable disease. Ten patients (32.3%) had progressive disease. The overall 1-year survival rate of all 31 patients was 40.1 +/- 9.1%. The patients treated with pulsed and boosted therapy had better 1-year survival rates than those treated by pulsed therapy alone (63.3 +/- 12.0% vs. 10.7 +/- 9.4%; P < 0.001). In this trial, DC vaccinations for advanced HCC were safe. Liver function tests showed no difference before and after DC vaccinations. The results of this clinical trial indicate that DC vaccination is a safe treatment for HCC. Pulsed DC vaccination followed by boosters can provide better clinical survival for advanced HCC patients than pulsed DC vaccination only. Further studies are needed to increase the efficacy of this therapeutic approach.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Repeated DNA vaccinations elicited qualitatively different cytotoxic T lymphocytes and improved protective antitumor effects.

The use of DNA vaccines for generating antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses has been well established. However, little is known about the quantitative and qualitative aspects of CD8+ T cell responses and protective immunity generated after repeated DNA vaccinations. We used human papillomavirus (HPV) type-16 E7 as a model tumor antigen in an E7-expressing tumor model, TC-1, to assess the influence of the frequency of DNA vaccinations on E7-specific immunological and antitumor responses. Mice were vaccinated with 1-4 inoculations of pcDNA 3-E7 DNA. Immunological assays and tumor protection experiments were performed to assess the effect of repeated E7 DNA vaccination on E7-specific T cells and E7-expressing tumors. Our results demonstrated that mice receiving an increased number of E7 DNA vaccinations exhibited higher E7-specific CTL activity, a rapid expansion of E7-specific IFN-gamma-secreting CD8+ T cells upon stimulation with E7 antigen, and a stronger antitumor effect against an E7-expressing tumor. Furthermore, we found that increasing the number of E7 DNA vaccinations followed by vaccinia booster enhanced the functional avidity of E7-specific CD8+ T cells. Our data suggest that quantitative and qualitative characteristics of antigen-specific CD8 + T cell responses and the ensuing protective antitumor effect can be influenced by the frequency of DNA vaccinations. These results have important clinical implications for the use of naked DNA vaccines in cancer immunotherapy.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sclerosing hepatocellular carcinoma: clinicopathologic features in seven patients from Taiwan and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Sclerosing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an uncommon subtype of HCC. We provided data on 7 cases of sclerosing HCC, including clinical presentations, diagnoses, management, and prognoses. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective review of the medical records of seven patients with sclerosing HCC treated at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Taipei between Oct 1994 and Jan 2001. RESULTS: Seven patients with sclerosing HCC were identified, with ages ranging from 26 to 71 years (mean, 42.3 years). Abdominal fullness was the most common symptom, occurring in 4 of seven patients (57.1%). All seven patients with sclerosing HCC had normal serum calcium and phosphate values. HCC was the most common preoperative diagnosis, occurring in 5 of seven patients (71.4%). Three of the seven patients were correctly diagnosed with sclerosing HCC preoperatively. The median overall survival and disease-free survival of these seven patients were 20 and 9 months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In Taiwan, the patients with sclerosing HCC had normal serum values of calcium and phosphate. Sclerosing HCC has specific, but different radiological and pathological features, compared with conventional HCC. Its prognosis does not seem poor, although we still need to follow-up for a longer period.

Adult↗