In their study appearing online on November 23 in advance of print publication in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Johannes Vieweg and colleagues show that the immunotoxin DAB389IL-2 selectively eliminates CD25-expressing regulatory T cells in cancer patients, without any toxic effects. This strategy significantly improved the stimulation of tumor-specific T cell responses in these cancer patients, compared to vaccination alone. Researchers had previously suggested that eliminating this population of T cells could enhance the efficacy of cancer vaccines, and this study represents what is believed to be the first time this concept had been tested and shown to be successful in humans.
TITLE: Enhancement of vaccine-mediated antitumor immunity in cancer patients after depletion of regulatory T cells
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Johannes Vieweg
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina, USA
Phone: 919-684-9949
Fax: 919-681-7414
E-mail: j.vieweg@duke.edu
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=25947
Journal of Clinical Investigation