Lymphocyte Subpopulations in Melanoma Patients Treated with Dendritic Cell Vaccines

Abstract

The main goal of cancer immunotherapy is to induce or boost tumor-specific effector cells able to eliminate or reduce tumor progression. In this study, we characterized lymphocyte phenotypes in melanoma patients receiving dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccinotherapy. We found that several biological markers served as unfavorable prognostic factors for patients’ response to therapy. This included decrease of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ lymphocyte levels, 10% and higher increase of CD16⁺CD3⁺CD8⁺ lymphocyte population, and increase of CD16⁺CD8⁺perforin⁺T lymphocytes, especially in combination with decreased levels of CD16⁺CD8^-perforin⁺ and CD8⁺CD16^-perforin⁺ cells. Increase in CD8⁺CD16^-perforin⁺ T lymphocytes with normal levels of CD16⁺CD8^-perforin⁺ cells and the absence of CD16⁺CD8⁺perforin⁺ and regulatory lymphocytes were shown to be the positive prognostic markers for patients’ response to DC vaccines.