Melanoma-specific cytotoxic T cells generated from peripheral blood lymphocytes. Implications of a renewable source of precursors for adoptive cellular immunotherapy.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific for autologous human melanoma have been generated in vitro from peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of five patients with resectable stage II malignant melanoma. The PBL were cultured with 5u/ml recombinant IL-2 and were repeatedly stimulated with irradiated fresh or cultured autologous tumor cells. Cytotoxicity was determined by four-hour chromium release assays. Specific cytotoxicity developed in 30 to 40 days, after three or four stimulations with tumor. The PBL-derived CTL are CD3+ and are mixed for CD4+ and CD8+ phenotypes. They lysed autologous melanoma and failed to lyse allogeneic melanoma, K562, or autologous lymphocytes. The lysis of autologous tumor was maintained for more than 4 months. The cells proliferated in response to autologous, but not allogeneic melanoma cells, in a dose-dependent manner. Lysis of the autologous tumor target was inhibited with w6/32, a monoclonal antibody to HLA Class I antigens. It is concluded that PBL may serve as a plentiful and renewable source of precursor cells for the generation of autologous tumor-specific CTL, which may be useful in specific adoptive cellular immunotherapy of melanoma.