Activated T cells (Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals)

The purpose of this study is to determine if it is safe to add multiple immunotherapies to standard chemotherapy and radiation for treating pancreatic cancer tumors that cannot be completely removed by surgery.
GI-4000 Vaccination:
The first involves a "vaccine," which is an injection (shot) that teaches your immune system to attack foreign invaders. The vaccine we will use is called "GI-4000" - a vaccine composed of yeast that is made to carry the same proteins (called "mutated Ras proteins") found in some pancreatic cancer cells.
Adoptive T-cell Transfer:
The second type of immunotherapy in this study is called "adoptive T-cell transfer." This involves collecting a specific type of white blood cells from you (called "T-cells")and growing T-cells grown in a lab which may help the research participants' immune systems recover more quickly after chemotherapy, and possibly improved response to other immunotherapies.
We hope that studying these agents together will teach us how to help the immune system fight pancreatic cancer.

This is a Phase II single arm study of a novel T cell immunotherapy in patients with indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Eligible patients will have relapsed or refractory disease after receiving at least one and no more than four prior regimens. Patients will receive Xcellerated T CellsTM, an ex vivo activated and expanded autologous T cell product, in an attempt to enhance immune responses with anti-tumor activity. The primary endpoint of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of Xcellerated T Cells in patients with indolent NHL. Secondary endpoints are to evaluate the safety of the therapy in this patient population, and to evaluate changes in the number and phenotype of T- and B-lymphocytes, as well as changes in the T cell receptor repertoire, hemoglobin levels, platelet counts and quantitative immunoglobulin levels. In a subset of patients, fine-needle aspirates of malignant lymph nodes will be performed to assess changes in the lymphocyte composition and phenotype. Bone marrow aspirates will be similarly evaluated. Finally, anti-tumor immune responses will be evaluated in patients amenable to biopsy of enlarged lymph nodes.