Data from High Frequencies of Functional Tumor-Reactive T Cells in Bone Marrow and Blood of Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Abstract

<div>Abstract<p>Pancreatic cancer is characterized by aggressive growth and treatment resistance. New approaches include immunotherapeutic strategies but the type and extent of spontaneous immune responses against tumor antigens remains unclear. A dominance of TH2 cytokines in patients' sera reported previously suggests systemic tumor-induced immunosuppression, potentially inhibiting the induction of tumor-reactive T cells. We characterized the localization, frequencies, and functional potential of spontaneously induced memory T cells specific for individual tumor antigens or the tumor-associated antigen mucin-1 in the peripheral blood and bone marrow of 41 pancreatic cancer patients. We found high numbers of tumor-reactive T cells in all bone marrow samples and in 50% of the blood samples. These cells secreted the TH1 cytokine IFN-γ rather than TH2 cytokines upon stimulation with tumor antigens. Although consistently induced during pancreatic cancer, T cells specific for pancreatic antigens were not detected during chronic pancreatitis, suggesting that their evaluation may be of diagnostic use in both diseases. Freshly isolated T cells from cancer patients recognized autologous tumor cells and rejected them <i>in vitro</i> and in a xenotransplant model <i>in vivo</i>, suggesting their therapeutic potential. Thus, tumor antigen–specific T cell responses occur regularly during pancreatic cancer disease and lead to enrichment of tumor cell–reactive memory T cells in the bone marrow. The bone marrow can therefore be considered an important organ for antitumor immune responses in pancreatic cancer.</p></div>