Masters of Immunology
William E. Paul and Zvi Grossman
Cancer Immunol Res June 1 2014 2 (6) 503-509; DOI:10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-14-0046
Tumor neoantigens are common T-cell targets in humans with regressing or sometimes long-term stable disease. Fritsch and colleagues analyzed their predicted HLA-binding properties, and herein show that they provide important guidance for neoepitope selection for personalized cancer vaccines.
Using a tissue microarray of liver metastases from 158 patients with colorectal cancer, Turcotte and colleagues show that high MHC class I expression with dense intratumoral T-cell infiltration identifies patients with favorable outcomes independent of conventional prognostic factors.
Tjin and colleagues analyzed a large panel of immune markers in patients with stage IV advanced melanoma prior to autologous tumor-cell vaccination and report that high density of intratumoral CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with elevated granzyme B expression is correlated with favorable clinical outcome.
Tyler and colleagues show that cancer–testis antigen 7 (CT7) protein expression in the bone marrow and CT7-specific T-cell responses in blood are associated with the disease course of patients with multiple myeloma following allogeneic stem cell transplantation, supporting immunotherapeutic targeting of CT7 as a treatment for multiple myeloma.
Hemmerle and Neri show in three syngeneic murine tumor models that immunocytokine F8–IFNγ targets tumoral fibronectin, recruits and activates leukocytes, and needs relatively high doses to localize on tumors, and that its antitumor activity is potentiated by combination with F8-IL4 without additional toxicities.
Narusawa and colleagues found that type 1 IFNs and plasmacytoid dendritic cells in the tumor-draining lymph nodes mediate GM-CSF–induced antitumor immunity in immunocompetent mice, and they report that the synthetic TLR7 ligand imiquimod could overcome tolerance and enhance autologous GM-CSF antitumor effects.
Kao and colleagues report that concurrent cisplatin/tecemotide therapy induced additive reduction in lung tumor foci associated with a Th1 immune response. They further suggest that localized lung radiotherapy may enhance the CTL-driven antitumor activity of tecemotide.
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