Analysis of HLA Class I Expression in Progressing and Regressing Metastatic Melanoma Lesions After Immunotherapy

Overview

Journal Immunogenetics

Specialties Allergy & Immunology
Genetics

Date 2008 Jun 12

PMID 18545995

Citations 63

Authors

Rafael Carretero

Jose M Romero

Francisco Ruiz-Cabello

Isabel Maleno

Felix Rodriguez

Francisco M Camacho

Luis M Real

Federico Garrido

Teresa Cabrera

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite the potential efficacy of cancer immunotherapy in preclinical studies, it did not show yet significant positive clinical results in humans with only a small number of cancer patients demonstrating objective tumor regression. This poor clinical outcome can be explained by the generation of sophisticated tumor immune escape mechanism, in particular, abnormalities in the expression of HLA class I antigens. We have studied the expression of HLA class I antigens in ten metastatic lesions obtained from a melanoma patient undergoing immunotherapy. Five lesions were obtained after Interferon-alpha-2b treatment and five after autologous vaccination plus BCG (M-VAX). Eight metastases were regressing after immunotherapy while two were progressing. The eight regressing metastases showed high level of HLA class I expression, whereas the two progressing lesions had low levels as measured by real time PCR and immunohistological techniques. These results indicate a strong association between HLA class I expression and progression or regression of the metastatic lesions. Our data support the hypothesis that the level of HLA class I expression is an important parameter of tumor immune escape that needs to be monitored.

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