Intensity of the vaccine-elicited immune response determines tumor clearance

Tumor Ag-specific vaccines used for cancer immunotherapy can generate specific CD8 responses detectable in PBMCs and in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. However, human studies have shown that detection of a systemic vaccine-induced response does not necessarily correlate with the occasional instances of tumor rejection. Because this discrepancy might partially be attributable to the genetic heterogeneity of human cancers, as well as to the immunosuppressive effects of previous treatments, we turned to a mouse model in which these variables could be controlled to determine whether a relationship exists between the strength of vaccine-induced immune responses and tumor rejection. We challenged mice with the beta-galactosidase (beta-gal)-expressing tumor cells, C25.F6, vaccinated them with beta-gal-carrying viral vectors, and used quantitative RT-PCR to measure the vaccine-induced immune response of splenocytes directly ex vivo. We found that the strength of the response increased with increasing doses of beta-gal-carrying vector and/or upon boosting with a heterologous beta-gal-carrying virus. Most importantly, we found that the strength of the detected immune response against this foreign Ag strongly correlated with reduction in the number of lung metastases. The results from this mouse model have major implications for the implementation of tumor vaccines in humans.