Adjuvant NY-ESO-1 vaccine immunotherapy in high-risk resected melanoma: a retrospective cohort analysis

Abstract Background Cancer-testis antigen NY-ESO-1 is a highly immunogenic melanoma antigen which has been incorporated into adjuvant vaccine clinical trials. Three such early-phase trials were conducted at our center among patients with high-risk resected melanoma. We herein report on the pooled long-term survival outcomes of these patients in comparison to historical controls. Methods All melanoma patients treated at NYU Langone Health under any of three prospective adjuvant NY-ESO-1 vaccine trials were retrospectively pooled into a single cohort. All such patients with stage III melanoma were subsequently compared to historical control patients identified via a prospective institutional database with protocol-driven follow-up. Survival times were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox proportional hazard models were employed to identify significant prognostic factors and control for confounding variables. Results A total of 91 patients were treated with an NY-ESO-1 vaccine for the treatment of high-risk resected melanoma. Of this group, 67 patients were stage III and were selected for comparative analysis with 123 historical control patients with resected stage III melanoma who received no adjuvant therapy. Among the pooled vaccine cohort (median follow-up 61 months), the estimated median recurrence-free survival was 45 months, while the median overall survival was not yet reached. In the control cohort of 123 patients (median follow-up 30 months), the estimated median recurrence-free and overall survival were 22 and 58 months, respectively. Within the retrospective stage III cohort, NY-ESO-1 vaccine was associated with decreased risk of recurrence (HR = 0.56, p < 0.01) and death (HR = 0.51, p = 0.01). Upon controlling for sub-stage, the adjuvant NY-ESO-1 clinical trial cohort continued to exhibit decreased risk of recurrence (HR = 0.45, p < 0.01) and death (HR = 0.40, p < 0.01). Conclusions In this small retrospective cohort of resected stage III melanoma patients, adjuvant NY-ESO-1 vaccine immunotherapy was associated with longer recurrence-free and overall survival relative to historical controls. These data support the continued investigation of adjuvant NY-ESO-1 based immunotherapy regimens in melanoma

MOESM3 of Impact of aging on host immune response and survival in melanoma: an analysis of 3 patient cohorts

Additional file 3: Table S3. A Significant gene expression differences with aging in the IMCG primary melanoma cohort (n = 84). B Significant gene expression differences with aging in the TCGA primary melanoma cohort (n = 43)

MOESM4 of Impact of aging on host immune response and survival in melanoma: an analysis of 3 patient cohorts

Additional file 4: Table S4. Immunoregulatory gene expression of 84 IMCG primary melanomas

MOESM1 of Impact of aging on host immune response and survival in melanoma: an analysis of 3 patient cohorts

Additional file 1: Table S1. A Association of SEER clinicopathologic features with age. B Association of IMCG clinicopathologic features with age and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. C Association of TCGA clinicopathologic features with age and lymphocyte score

MOESM2 of Impact of aging on host immune response and survival in melanoma: an analysis of 3 patient cohorts

Additional file 2: Table S2. Clinicopathologic features of 84 IMCG and 43 TCGA primary melanomas in gene expression analysis

Baseline antibody profiles predict toxicity in melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Abstract Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, or the combination) enhance anti-tumor immune responses, yielding durable clinical benefit in several cancer types, including melanoma. However, a subset of patients experience immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which can be severe and result in treatment termination. To date, no biomarker exists that can predict development of irAEs. Methods We hypothesized that pre-treatment antibody profiles identify a subset of patients who possess a sub-clinical autoimmune phenotype that predisposes them to develop severe irAEs following immune system disinhibition. Using a HuProt human proteome array, we profiled baseline antibody levels in sera from melanoma patients treated with anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, or the combination, and used support vector machine models to identify pre-treatment antibody signatures that predict irAE development. Results We identified distinct pre-treatment serum antibody profiles associated with severe irAEs for each therapy group. Support vector machine classifier models identified antibody signatures that could effectively discriminate between toxicity groups with > 90% accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Pathway analyses revealed significant enrichment of antibody targets associated with immunity/autoimmunity, including TNFα signaling, toll-like receptor signaling and microRNA biogenesis. Conclusions Our results provide the first evidence supporting a predisposition to develop severe irAEs upon immune system disinhibition, which requires further independent validation in a clinical trial setting