title: Frequency analysis of tumor-reactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes in peripheral blood of a melanoma patient vaccinated with autologous tumor cells.
abstract: A limiting-dilution assay was developed and used to determine the frequency of autologous tumor-reactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in peripheral blood of a melanoma patient MZ2, who has been free of detectable disease since several years. In this patient, the frequencies of tumor-reactive CTL spontaneously varied only by a factor of 1.5. After vaccinations with autologous mutagenized and lethally irradiated tumor cells a two- to tenfold increase in frequencies of tumor-reactive CTL was found within the first 2 weeks. Thereafter, CTL frequencies returned to values measured prior to vaccinations. We conclude, that the limiting-dilution assay applied in this study can detect changes in the T cell response to autologous tumor cells. The frequency of tumor-reactive CTL determined with this approach can serve as an immunological parameter for monitoring the T cell response to autologous tumor cells in individual cancer patients receiving tumor cell vaccinations.
authors.affiliation: I. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Herr
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wölfel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heike
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Meyer zum Büschenfelde
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knuth
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D007959:Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014611:Vaccination