Complete and long-lasting clinical responses in immune checkpoint inhibitor-resistant, metastasized melanoma treated with adoptive T cell transfer combined with DC vaccination

Abstract

Development of T cell-directed immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has revolutionized metastatic melanoma (MM) therapy, but 36 and >18 months, respectively). In addition, two patients had partial responses (PR), one still ongoing (>42 months) with only a small bone-lesion remaining, and one of short duration (<4 months). One patient died early during treatment and did not receive DC. Long-lasting persistency of the injected TILs was demonstrated in blood. In summary, we report clinical responses by TIL therapy combined with DC vaccination in 4 out of 4 treated MM patients who previously failed ICI.

Keywords

• combination immunotherapy
• adoptive tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy
• tumor lysate
• dc vaccination
• immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance