Differences in T-cell immunity toward tumor-associated antigens in colorectal cancer and breast cancer patients

There is increasing evidence that tumors elicit specific T-cell responses in a substantial proportion of patients. Recently, we have shown that in patients with colorectal cancer specific T cells against the tumor-associated antigens (TAA) Ep-CAM, her-2/neu or CEA can be detected in peripheral blood using IFNgamma-ELISPOT assay. In our study, we have analyzed T-cell responses against HLA-A*0201-restricted epitopes of these TAA in peripheral blood of patients with breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Surprisingly, a complete absence of ex vivo T-cell responses against these TAA was found in 20 patients with breast cancer. In contrast, specific T cells were detectable in 12 of 49 patients with colorectal cancer against at least I of these TAA, confirming our previous results. T-cell responses against influenza-derived peptides were similar in both malignancies. The results of our study indicate a difference either of tumor immunogenicity or of the migratory pattern of tumor-specific T cells between breast cancer and colorectal cancer patients. The findings reported here have implications for the development of antigen-specific T-cell therapies. (C) 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.