Even after chemotherapies and stem cell transplants, relapses still occur in leukemia patients. This study established a mouse model after bone marrow transplant and found that the immunization of mice with leukemia-cell-derived heat shock protein 70 (HSP) induced leukemia-specific immunities and prolonged their survival.

The tumor-derived-HSP binds the tumor-specific antigenic peptides, making it an effective cancer vaccination. It has reported that patients with peptide-specific antibodies survived longer than those without.

Using leukemia-specific antibodies induced by HSP-based vaccination would be useful for the prognosis of leukemia and facilitate the establishment of novel therapeutic strategies in the future.

“Induction of leukemia-specific anti-bodies by immunotherapy with leukemia-cell-derived heat shock protein 70″
Junko Jimbo, Kazuya Sato, Takaaki Hosoki, Motohiro Shindo, Katsuya Ikuta, Yoshihiro Torimoto, Yutaka Kohgo
Cancer Science - Volume 99 Issue 7, Pages 1427 - 1434
10.1111/j.1349-7006.2008.00829.x
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