[Metronomic chemotherapy combined with dendritic cell vaccine inhibits VEGF secretion].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The survival rate of lung cancer is low, thus new methods for treating this form of cancer must be explored. This study applies immune therapy with metronomic chemotherapy to observe the effect of combined therapy on suppressing tumor.

METHODS: Mice were inoculated with Lewis lung carcinoma cells. Different treatments, namely, saline, metronomic chemotherapy, dendritic cell (DC) vaccine, and metronomic chemotherapy with DC vaccine were administered to corresponding mice groups. Basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were detected via microdialysis and Luminex.

RESULTS: The median survival time of mice in the metronomic chemotherapy with DC vaccine group was (27.6±3.2) days, whereas that in the saline group was (13.5±2.7) days (P=0.008), that in the DC) vaccine group was (13.1±2.3) days (P=0.01), and that in the metronomic chemotherapy group was (11.8±3.0) days (P=0.01). The mice in the metronomic chemotherapy with DC vaccine group exhibited longer survival time than the mice in the other groups. This result could be related to the downregulation of VEGF secretion in the tumor-bearing mice groups within 48 h to 72 h.

CONCLUSIONS: VEGF secretion could be downregulated in tumor-bearing mice by administering metronomic chemotherapy with DC vaccine.