Phenotype and Functional Characterization of Long-term gp100-Specific Memory CD8+ T Cells in Disease-Free Melanoma Patients Before and After Boosting Immunization

Abstract

Although vaccination with class I-restricted melanoma peptides alone can break tolerance to self-tumor antigens, it did not induce fully competent memory CD8+ T cells--even in disease-free patients. Data presented suggest other vaccine strategies will be required to induce functionally robust long-term memory T cells.