The prognostic impact of specific CD4 T-cell responses is critically dependent on the target antigen in melanoma

Henning Zelba; Benjamin Weide; Alexander Martens; Jithendra Kini Bailur; Claus Garbe; Graham Pawelec

doi:10.4161/21624011.2014.955683

The prognostic impact of specific CD4 T-cell responses is critically dependent on the target antigen in melanoma

Oncoimmunology. 2015 Jan 30;4(1):e955683. doi: 10.4161/21624011.2014.955683. eCollection 2015 Jan.

Authors

Henning Zelba¹, Benjamin Weide², Alexander Martens³, Jithendra Kini Bailur³, Claus Garbe², Graham Pawelec³

Affiliations

¹ Interfaculty Institute for Cell Biology; Department of Immunology; University of Tübingen ; Tübingen, Germany.
² Division of Dermatooncology; Department of Dermatology; Tübingen University Medical Center ; Tübingen, Germany.
³ Department of Internal Medicine II; Section for Transplantation Immunology and Immunohematology; Tübingen University Medical Center ; Tübingen, Germany.

Abstract

The melanoma-associated antigens Melan-A and NY-ESO-1 stimulate different T-cell responses in late-stage melanoma patients. Either CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ T-cell reactivity against NY-ESO-1 was associated with better prognosis, but for Melan-A, only CD8⁺ but not CD4⁺ T-cell responses were associated with longer survival.

Keywords: MAGE-A3; Melan-A; NY-ESO-1; antigen-specific T-cells; intracellular cytokine staining; survivin.