Use of a vaccine targeting a cryptic tert epitope, for treating cancer in a HLA-A*0201-positive patient having a non-immunogenic tumor expressing tert
The invention pertains to the use of a tumor vaccine composed of two peptides of nine amino acids—the WT cryptic TERT572 (RLFFYRKSV, SEQ ID No: 1) expressed by tumor cells and its optimized variant TERT572Y (YLFFYRKSV, SEQ ID No: 2)—for treating cancer in a HLA-A*0201-positive patient having a non-immunogenic tumor expressing TERT.
1. A method of treating cancer in an HLA-A*0201-positive patient having a tumor expressing Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT), comprising:
providing a blood sample comprising Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) from the patient collected less than 2 weeks after the end of a platinum-based first line chemotherapy and measuring an anti-tumor CTL response, wherein the CTLs in the blood sample have no response specific for the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 1 and/or the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 3 and/or the peptide of SEQ ID No: 5; and
administering 2 vaccinations with the peptide of SEQ ID No: 2 and then 4 vaccinations with the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 1 to the patient, with a three week interval between said vaccinations,
wherein the administration significantly prolongs survival of the patient as compared to placebo.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said patient has non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said patient has non-squamous (NSQ) NSCLC.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said patient is a never-smoker or a former smoker who had been smoking less than 30 years.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said patient is a never-smoker or a light-smoker.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said patient has received a platinum-based chemotherapy and responded thereto prior to vaccination with the peptide of SEQ ID No: 2.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said patient is more than 65 years old.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said patient is a male.
9. The method of claim 1 , comprising measuring CTL response specific for the peptide of SEQ ID No: 1.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein CTL response specific for the peptide of SEQ ID No: 1 is measured by enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) IFNg assay.
11. The method of claim 1 , comprising measuring CTL response specific for the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 3.
12. The method of claim 1 , comprising measuring CTL response specific for the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 5.