Cancer regression and autoimmunity induced by cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 blockade in patients with metastatic melanoma

Giao Q. Phan, James C. Yang, Richard M. Sherry, Patrick Hwu, Suzanne L. Topalian, Douglas J. Schwartzentruber, Nicholas P. Restifo, Leah R. Haworth, Claudia A. Seipp, Linda J. Freezer, Kathleen E. Morton, Sharon A. Mavroukakis, Paul H. Duray, Seth M. Steinberg, James P. Allison, Thomas A. Davis, Steven A. Rosenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1421 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) is a critical immunoregulatory molecule (expressed on activated T cells and a subset of regulatory T cells) capable of down-regulating T cell activation. Blockade of CTLA-4 has been shown in animal models to improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy. We thus treated 14 patients with metastatic melanoma by using serial i.v. administration of a fully human anti-CTLA-4 antibody (MDX-010) in conjunction with s.c. vaccination with two modified HLA-A*0201-restricted peptides from the gp100 melanoma-associated antigen, gp100:209-217(210M) and gp100:280-288(288V). This blockade of CTLA-4 induced grade III/IV autoimmune manifestations in six patients (43%), including dermatitis, enterocolitis, hepatitis, and hypophysitis, and mediated objective cancer regression in three patients (21%; two complete and one partial responses). This study establishes CTLA-4 as an important molecule regulating tolerance to "self" antigens in humans and suggests a role for CTLA-4 blockade in breaking tolerance to human cancer antigens for cancer immunotherapy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)8372-8377
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume100
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 8 2003

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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