Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the majority of patients do not gain any benefit from dendritic cells (DC) vaccines, this approach has occasionally given rise to dramatic responses in melanoma. Biomarkers are crucial to identify which patients are more likely to respond. We looked for correlations between pre- or post- vaccination biomarkers and clinical outcomes to DC therapy in a cohort of patients with stage IV melanoma receiving a vaccine with autologous ex-vivo expanded DCs pulsed with allogeneic tumor cell lysate. METHODS: Serial serum samples were collected at baseline, week 4 and 12 and they were analyzed for a panel of different inflammatory markers using cytometric bead array technology and ELISA. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients were evaluable for response. Patients were separated into responders and non-responders based on clinical benefit. Responders were defined as patients who achieved a complete response, partial response or stable disease the latter lasting for at least 6 months. Responders (N = 9) showed a significantly longer Progression-free Survival (PFS; HR 0.23; 95% CI 0.08-062; P < .001) and Overall Survival (OS; HR 0.22; 95% CI 0.08-0.59; P < .001). The clinical non-responder phenotype correlated with an elevated pre-vaccination level of cytokines associated with inflammation compared to clinical responders (Apolipoprotein C111; IL-12 p40; MiP1α; Stem Cell Factor and TNFα). Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) was also significantly elevated in the pre-vaccine sera of the clinically non-responding group and in addition it was found to correlate with outcomes. Patients with increased levels of ApoE had a significantly shorter PFS (HR 3.02; 95% CI 1.09-8.35; P = .015) and OS (HR 2.40; 95% CI 0.9-6.3; P = .034). CONCLUSION: Our findings support the notion that treating the inflammatory background may have an impact on clinical outcome for patients receiving immunotherapy. A larger study is needed to confirm the significance of ApoE as a predictive biomarker for response to DC vaccines.