Patrick Hwu, M.D. 1987, Medical College of Pennsylvania UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Melanoma Medical Oncology Contact Information

Research Interests: Cancer Immunology, Cancer Vaccines, Tumor Immunotherapy

Significant advances in our understanding of the immune response against cancer have allowed us to design rational immune therapies for patients. My laboratory is focused on the translation of basic immunologic concepts from the laboratory to the clinic. We have found that some patients with metastatic cancer can be successfully treated with infusions of tumor-reactive T-cells. We are currently investigating methods to improve these therapies, by studying T-cell proliferation, survival, and trafficking using murine models as well as human T-cells.

A tutorial in my lab would give students experience in:

• The basic concepts of cancer immunology
• Growth and characterization of tumor-reactive T-cells
• Murine models of tumor immunotherapy
• Measurement of cytokine levels by ELISA
• FACS analysis of tumor-reactive T-cells
• Measurement of immune responses following cancer vaccines

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Wang G, Tschoi M, Spolski R, Lou Y, Ozaki K, Feng C, Kim G, Leonard WJ, Hwu P., In vivo antitumor activity of interleukin 21 mediated by natural killer cells, Cancer Res. 2003 Dec 15;63(24):9016-22.

Dudley M E, Wunderlich J, Robbins P, Yang J C, Hwu P, Schwartzentruber D J, Topalian S L, Sherry R, Restifo N, Hubicki A M, Robinson M R, Raffeld M, Duray P, Seipp C A, Rogers-Freezer L, Morton K E, Mavroukakis S A, White D E, Rosenberg S A. Cancer regression and autoimmunity following clonal repopulation with anti-tumor lymphocytes and non-myeloablative conditioning. Science 25;298(5594):850-4, Oct, 2002.

Kershaw M H, Westwood J A, and Hwu P. Dual-specific T cells combine proliferation and antitumor activity Nature Biotechnology 20(12):1221-7, 2002.

Kershaw M H, Wang G, Westwood J A, Pachynski R K, Tiffany H L, Wang E, Marincola F M, Tiffany L, Young H A, Murphy P M, and Hwu P. Redirecting migration of T-cells to chemokine secreted from tumors by genetic modification with CXCR2. Human Gene Therapy Nov;13(16):1971-80, 2002.

Kershaw M H, Hsu C, Mondesire W, Parker L L, Wang G, Overwijk WW, Lapointe R, Yang J C, Wang R, Restifo N P, and Hwu P. Immunization against endogenous retroviral tumor associated antigens. Cancer Research. 61(21):7920-4, 2001.

Lapointe R, Royal R, Reeves M, Robbins P, and Hwu P, Identification of a novel class II restricted epitope from gp100 using retrovirally transduced dendritic cells. J. of Immunology 167: 4758-4764, 2001.

Specht JM, Wang G, Do M, Lam JS, Royal R, Reeves M, Rosenberg SA, and Hwu P. Dendritic cells retrovirally transduced with a model antigen gene are therapeutically effective against established pulmonary metastases. J. Exp. Med. 186(8): 1213-1221, 1997.

Wang G, Chopra R, Royal R, Yang J, Rosenberg SA, and Hwu P. A T-cell independent anti-tumor response in mice using bone marrow cells retrovirally transduced with a chimeric monoclonal antibody/Fc-g receptor gene recognizing a human ovarian cancer antigen. Nature Medicine 4 (2):168-172, 1998.

Program Affiliation:
Program in Immunology