CANCER HOSPITAL SANAFONTIS: A new Option for the

treatment of Non-Hodgkin-Lymphoma
Immuno Therapy

The aim of immune therapy is to strengthen the body’s defences in general or to

support the immune system in its fight against malignant cells in particular. This can
be achieved by administering either cytokines (tissue hormones) or antibodies.
Recently, there has been experimental use of vaccinations or vaccination-like
procedures. In targeted immune therapy, the body’s defence cells are specifically
“trained” to attack certain types of tumours.
The Cancer Hospital SanaFontis uses primarily interleukines, interferons and various
antibody vaccines for targeted immune therapy.

A new Option for the treatment of Non-Hodgkin-Lymphoma

At the CANCER HOSPITAL Sanafontis, patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma can now be
treated with a special immunotherapy. This new therapy was developed by Prof. Dr.
Hendrick Veelken’s work group at the Freiburg University Hospital in cooperation with
the biotech company Cellgenix, which is also located at Freiburg. The treatment, a
vaccine, is an active, individualised immunotherapy and called idiotyped vaccine.
Each patient gets his or her own personal vaccine custom-made from lymphoma
tissue that is sampled by way of a biopsy and consists of a protein that is typically
found only on the surface of lymphoma cells. It does not exist on the body’s healthy
cells. This protein is called “idiotype”. Therapy with the idiotyped vaccine is aimed at
stimulating the patient’s immune system and enabling it to specifically target and
destroy tumour cells. The results obtained so far in a phase-I study on idiotyped
vaccination showed that the therapy has few or no side effects. In addition, the
vaccine produced a specific anti-idiotyped immune response rate of 65 % even in
severely immunocompromised patients.

Further studies to verify and confirm these results are already underway. And as the
new vaccine is a medicinal product which according to currently applicable law does
not require regulatory approval, it can be provided to patients without delay. At
present, idiotyped-vaccine treatment of most types of B-Cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma
is conceivable, although there are other therapy options for non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy with interferons or antibodies, and
radiotherapy. Which therapy offers the best chances of a successful outcome at what
stage, however, must be decided on a case-to-case basis.

For further information visit our website at: www.sanafontis.com