Cancer Immunity, Vol. 9, p. 8 (1 October 2009) Submitted: 4 August 2009. Accepted: 10 September 2009.
Midori Isobe1, Shingo Eikawa1, Akiko Uenaka1, Yoichi Nakamura2, Tetsuo Kanda3, Shigeru Kohno2, Kiyotaka Kuzushima4 and Eiichi Nakayama1
1Department of Immunology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan
2Department of Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, Japan
3Department of Internal Medicine, Goto Central Hospital, Goto, Japan
4Department of Immunology, Aichi Cancer Center, Nagoya, Japan
Communicated by: LJ Old
We show correlation between strong and decreased NY-ESO-1-specific immunity with spontaneous regression and subsequent recurrence, respectively, in a long-surviving patient with an NY-ESO-1-expressing lung adenocarcinoma. An integrated immune response consisting of IgG antibody, as well as CD4 and CD8 T cells, against NY-ESO-1 was observed at the time of spontaneous regression of multiple pleural metastases. After tumor dormancy for 3 years, the tumor started to progress. IgG antibody levels and the number of CD4 and CD8 T cells against NY-ESO-1 decreased, but were still detectable. On the other hand, the number of Foxp3+ CD25 high T regulatory cells gradually increased. The findings suggest the relevance of the NY-ESO-1 immune response and its regulation by Foxp3+ CD25 high T regulatory cells in the clinical course of this lung cancer patient.
Copyright © 2009 by Eiichi Nakayama