HLA-B35 correlates with a favorable outcome following adjuvant administration of an HLA-matched allogeneic melanoma vaccine

This work presents survival data of 42 melanoma patients at high risk for disease recurrence who received an allogeneic melanoma vaccine composed of three cell lines, each matching at least one allele of the recipient's human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A and -B loci. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate and disease-free survival (DFS) compared favorably with the standard interferon-α regimen. Interestingly, patients bearing HLA-B35 had significantly better OS and DFS (OS of 100% and DFS of 90% for HLA-B35 vs 56% and 23%, for the non-B35 patients). In contrast, patients expressing HLA-B07 did not fare well with the vaccine. Although the data include a relatively small cohort of patients, it strongly hints toward a correlation between HLA types and potential benefit from anticancer immunotherapy.