Immunization of Patients with the hTERT:540-548 Peptide Induces Peptide-Reactive T Lymphocytes That Do Not Recognize Tumors Endogenously Expressing Telomerase

Abstract

Our results are discordant with previous studies and those of a clinical trial that claimed peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients vaccinated with peptide-pulsed dendritic cells lysed hTERT(+) tumors. However, our findings are consistent with a previous study that demonstrated that the hTERT:540-548 peptide is cleaved in the proteasome. These results suggest that hTERT:540-548 is not presented on the surfaces of tumor cells in the context of HLA-A*0201 and will not be useful for the immunotherapy of patients with cancer.