Integrated NY-ESO-1 antibody and CD8 + T-cell responses correlate with clinical benefit in advanced melanoma patients treated with ipilimumab

Jianda Yuan, Matthew Adamow, Brian A. Ginsberg, Teresa S. Rasalan, Erika Ritter, Humilidad F. Gallardo, Yinyan Xu, Evelina Pogoriler, Stephanie L. Terzulli, Deborah Kuk, Katherine S. Panageas, Gerd Ritter, Mario Sznol, Ruth Halaban, Achim A. Jungbluth, James P. Allison, Lloyd J. Old, Jedd D. Wolchok, Sacha Gnjatic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

283 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody against cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), has been shown to improve survival in patients with advanced metastatic melanoma. It also enhances immunity to NY-ESO-1, a cancer/testis antigen expressed in a subset of patients with melanoma. To characterize the association between immune response and clinical outcome, we first analyzed NY-ESO-1 serum antibody by ELISA in 144 ipilimumab-treated patients with melanoma and found 22 of 140 (16%) seropositive at baseline and 31 of 144 (22%) seropositive following treatment. These NY-ESO-1-seropositive patients had a greater likelihood of experiencing clinical benefit 24 wk after ipilimumab treatment than NY-ESO-1-seronegative patients (P = 0.02, relative risk = 1.8, two-tailed Fisher test). To understand why some patients with NY-ESO-1 antibody failed to experience clinical benefit, we analyzed NY-ESO-1-specific CD4 +and CD8 + T-cell responses by intracellular multicytokine staining in 20 NY-ESO-1-seropositive patients and found a surprising dissociation between NY-ESO-1 antibody and CD8 responses in some patients. NY-ESO-1-seropositive patients with associated CD8 + T cells experienced more frequent clinical benefit (10 of 13; 77%) than thosewith undetectable CD8 + T-cell response (one of seven; 14%; P = 0.02; relative risk = 5.4, two-tailed Fisher test), aswell as a significant survival advantage (P = 0.01; hazard ratio = 0.2, time-dependent Cox model). Together, our data suggest that integrated NY-ESO-1 immune responsesmay have predictive value for ipilimumab treatment and argue for prospective studies in patients with established NY-ESO-1 immunity. The current findings provide a strong rationale for the clinical use of modulators of immunosuppression with concurrent approaches to favor tumor antigen-specific immune responses, such as vaccines or adoptive transfer, in patients with cancer.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)16723-16728
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume108
Issue number40
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 4 2011
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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