Monitoring tumor antigen specific T-cell responses in cancer patients and phase I clinical trials of peptide-based vaccination.
Numerous phase I and II clinical trials testing the safety and immunogenicity of various peptide vaccine formulations based on CTL-defined tumor antigens in cancer patients have been reported during the last 7 years. While specific T-cell responses can be detected in a variable fraction of immunized patients, an even smaller but significant fraction of these patients have objective tumor responses. Efficient therapeutic vaccination should aim at boosting naturally occurring antitumor T- and B-cell responses and at sustaining a large number of tumor antigen specific and fully functional effector T cells at tumor sites. Recent progress in our ability to quantitatively and qualitatively monitor tumor antigen specific CD8 T-cell responses will greatly help in making rapid progress in this field.
Romero
Pedro
P
Divison of Clinical Onco-Immunology, Lausanne branch, University Hospital (CHUV), Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, Switzerland. pedro.romero@isrec.unil.ch
Cerottini
Jean-Charles
JC
Speiser
Daniel E
DE
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D017321:Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D019496:Cancer Vaccines