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Amy Claudine Hobeika

Assistant Professor in Surgery
Surgery, Surgical Sciences
Box 2606 Med Ctr, Durham, NC 27710
404A MSRB 1, Research Dr, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications


Clinical trials of self-replicating RNA-based cancer vaccines.

Journal Article Cancer Gene Ther · June 2023 Therapeutic cancer vaccines, designed to activate immune effectors against tumor antigens, utilize a number of different platforms for antigen delivery. Among these are messenger RNAs (mRNA), successfully deployed in some prophylactic SARS-CoV2 vaccines. T ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combination of a novel heat shock protein 90-targeted photodynamic therapy with PD-1/PD-L1 blockade induces potent systemic antitumor efficacy and abscopal effect against breast cancers.

Journal Article J Immunother Cancer · September 2022 BACKGROUND: We previously demonstrated potent antitumor activity against human breast cancer xenografts using photodynamic therapy (PDT) targeting a novel tumor-specific photosensitizer (HS201), which binds heat shock protein 90 (HS201-PDT). However, induc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gene expression signatures of individual ductal carcinoma in situ lesions identify processes and biomarkers associated with progression towards invasive ductal carcinoma.

Journal Article Nat Commun · June 13, 2022 Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is considered a non-invasive precursor to breast cancer, and although associated with an increased risk of developing invasive disease, many women with DCIS will never progress beyond their in situ diagnosis. The path from n ... Full text Link to item Cite

HSP90-Specific nIR Probe Identifies Aggressive Prostate Cancers: Translation from Preclinical Models to a Human Phase I Study.

Journal Article Mol Cancer Ther · January 2022 A noninvasive test to discriminate indolent prostate cancers from lethal ones would focus treatment where necessary while reducing overtreatment. We exploited the known activity of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) as a chaperone critical for the function of n ... Full text Link to item Cite

Changes in Peripheral Blood Regulatory T Cells and IL-6 and IL-10 Levels Predict Response of Pediatric Medulloblastoma and Germ Cell Tumors With Residual or Disseminated Disease to Craniospinal Irradiation.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · October 1, 2021 PURPOSE: Radiation therapy (RT) modulates immune cells and cytokines, resulting in both clinically beneficial and detrimental effects. The changes in peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and cytokines during RT for pediatric brain tumors and the associati ... Full text Link to item Cite

Blood microbiota diversity determines response of advanced colorectal cancer to chemotherapy combined with adoptive T cell immunotherapy.

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · 2021 Human microbiota influence the response of malignancies to treatment with immune checkpoint blockade; however, their impact on other forms of immunotherapy is poorly understood. This study explored the effect of blood microbiota on clinical efficacy, repre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Long-term survival of patients with stage III colon cancer treated with VRP-CEA(6D), an alphavirus vector that increases the CD8+ effector memory T cell to Treg ratio.

Journal Article J Immunother Cancer · November 2020 BACKGROUND: There remains a significant need to eliminate the risk of recurrence of resected cancers. Cancer vaccines are well tolerated and activate tumor-specific immune effectors and lead to long-term survival in some patients. We hypothesized that vacc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adoptive immunotherapy with autologous T-cell infusions reduces opioid requirements in advanced cancer patients.

Journal Article Pain · January 2020 Relief of cancer-related pain remains challenging despite the availability of a range of opioid and nonopioid medications. Animal models demonstrate that T lymphocytes may mediate analgesia by producing endogenous opioids, but definitive clinical data are ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinical efficacy of intra-cavitary infusions of autologous dendritic cell/cytokine-induced killer cell products for the treatment of refractory malignant pleural effusions and ascites.

Journal Article Am J Transl Res · 2020 To explore the safety and efficacy of intra-cavitary infusions of autologous mixed dendritic cell (DC)-cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell products in advanced cancer patients with malignant pleural effusions or ascites. DC-CIKs were expanded ex vivo (mean ... Link to item Cite

Predictive significance of T cell subset changes during ex vivo generation of adoptive cellular therapy products for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Journal Article Oncol Lett · December 2019 Adoptive T cell immunotherapy with cytokine-induced killer cells (CIKs) has been demonstrated to prolong the survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the expansion of effect ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Immune correlates of clinical benefit in a phase I study of hyperthermia with adoptive T cell immunotherapy in patients with solid tumors.

Journal Article Int J Hyperthermia · November 2019 Purpose: To characterize the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, serum cytokine levels, peripheral blood T lymphocyte populations, safety, and clinical efficacy of hyperthermia (HT) combined with autologous adoptive cell therapy (ACT) and either salvage chem ... Full text Link to item Cite

Functional CD3+CD8+PD1- T Cell Accumulation and PD-L1 Expression Increases During Tumor Invasion in DCIS of the Breast.

Journal Article Clin Breast Cancer · October 2019 BACKGROUND: The changes in T cell subsets and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression during the transition from ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) to early invasive breast cancer had not been well studied. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 85 DCIS patien ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of synchronized anti-PD-1 with Ad-CEA vaccination on inhibition of colon cancer growth.

Journal Article Immunotherapy · August 2019 Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine whether addition of anti-PD-1 antibody increased the immunogenicity and anti-tumor activity of Ad-CEA vaccination in a murine model of colon cancer. Methods: Ad-CEA was administered prior to implantation of M ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combination of DC/CIK adoptive T cell immunotherapy with chemotherapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients: a prospective patients' preference-based study (PPPS).

Journal Article Clin Transl Oncol · June 2019 BACKGROUND: Advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has remained challenging to treat effectively. This study aimed to investigate the clinical effects and safety of immunotherapy with dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) administ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Vaccine-Induced Memory CD8+ T Cells Provide Clinical Benefit in HER2 Expressing Breast Cancer: A Mouse to Human Translational Study.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · May 1, 2019 PURPOSE: Immune-based therapy for metastatic breast cancer has had limited success, particularly in molecular subtypes with low somatic mutations rates. Strategies to augment T-cell infiltration of tumors include vaccines targeting established oncogenic dr ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Prospective randomized comparative study on rivaroxaban and LMWH for prophylaxis of post-apheresis thrombosis in adoptive T cell immunotherapy cancer patients.

Journal Article J Thromb Thrombolysis · May 2019 Autologous adoptive T cell immunotherapy has been recognized as an effective treatment for cancer patients. The initial qualified lymphocytes is the core element determining the immunotherapeutic outcomes clinically. Cell separator based apheresis procedur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Autologous Dendritic Cell-Cytokine Induced Killer Cell Immunotherapy Combined with S-1 Plus Cisplatin in Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Prospective Study.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · March 1, 2019 PURPOSE: We have assessed the combination of DC-CIK with S-1 plus cisplatin chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer (AGC) and the role of mutational analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire in predicting clinical outco ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract P2-09-16: CD8 T cells induced by novel alphaviral vector predict improved progression free survival in advanced HER2+ breast cancer patients

Conference Cancer Research · February 15, 2019 AbstractBackground: Immune-based therapy for metastatic breast cancer has had limited success. Strategies to augment adaptive immunity include vaccines targeting genomic amplifications like Human Epidermal G ... Full text Cite

Polyfunctional anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (anti-HER3) antibodies induced by HER3 vaccines have multiple mechanisms of antitumor activity against therapy resistant and triple negative breast cancers.

Journal Article Breast Cancer Res · August 9, 2018 BACKGROUND: Upregulation of human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3) is a major mechanism of acquired resistance to therapies targeting its heterodimerization partners epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor recepto ... Full text Link to item Cite

CYP1A1 genetic polymorphism is a promising predictor to improve chemotherapy effects in patients with metastatic breast cancer treated with docetaxel plus thiotepa vs. docetaxel plus capecitabine.

Journal Article Cancer Chemother Pharmacol · February 2018 PURPOSE: A prospective study was performed to compare the outcome for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients treated with docetaxel plus thiotepa (DT) or docetaxel plus capecitabine (DC), and to explore the value of CYP1A1*2C polymorphisms in predicting c ... Full text Link to item Cite