The aim of this clinical study is to evaluate the feasibility and safety of an individualized peptide vaccination approach in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). For this purpose, tumor-specific mutations are analyzed by comparative exome sequencing of tumor and healthy reference tissue. Expression of variants is further validated by RNA sequencing. In a second step, HLA-binding (human leukocyte antigen-binding) peptides derived from mutated protein sequences are selected for vaccination. The peptides are administered as a vaccination cocktail with adjuvant GM-CSF and Imiquimod over a course of 9 months and a total of 16 vaccinations. Primary objective is the de novo induction of a specific T cell response without unacceptable toxicity and acute GvHD (graft versus host disease).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Pediatric patients and young adults with ALL (T, B, pro-B, pre-B or c-ALL) ≥CR3 or with ≥1st relapse after stem cell transplantation (SCT); or patients in ≤CR2 who have received SCT without having reached a sufficient molecular remission prior to, or after SCT (defined as MRD ≥10^-4); or patients with initially refractory disease to standard treatment who could proceed to stem cell transplantation with alternative treatment options.
• Hematological remission has to be reached (<5% blasts in bone marrow or detectable minimal residual disease (MRD) ≤5x10^-2) after salvage chemotherapy and/or subsequent SCT.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Frank relapse (>5% leukemic blasts).
• Ejection fraction <25%; Creatinine-clearance <40ml/min; Bilirubin >4mg/dl, Transaminases >400 units/ml; severe infection (HIV, Hepatitis), acute GvHD III-IV or chronic GvHD.
• Significant psychiatric disabilities, uncontrolled seizure disorders or severe peripheral neuropathy/ leukoencephalopathy.
• Signs of autoimmune disease (i.e. idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, autoimmune hemolytic anemia).
• Need for immunosuppressive drugs.
• No tumor material available for exome sequencing.

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Anyone, upon request to PI