Lower frequencies of circulating suppressive regulatory T cells and higher frequencies of CD4+ naïve T cells at baseline are associated with severe immune-related adverse events in immune checkpoint inhibitor-treated melanoma

Publication Highlights

• CD4+ naïve T cells, CD16+ natural killer (NK) cells and T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domain (TIGIT)+ regulatory T cells (Treg) cells are present at significantly different frequencies in the peripheral blood before ICI-treatment in patients with severe irAE compared with patients without severe irAE, and that peak of severe irAE is associated with activated CD4+ and CD8+ memory T cells.

• These immune features are not associated with BRAF mutation status and are generally observed across different irAE categories

• Patients with severe irAE were more likely to observe clinical benefit from ICI, and patients with clinical benefit also had significantly different frequencies of CD4+ naive T cells, CD16+ NK cells and suppressive Treg at baseline compared with patients without clinical benefit.

View Publication on JITC

https://jitc.bmj.com/content/12/1/e008056

Reference Citation

Kovacsovics-Bankowski M, Sweere JM, Healy CP, et al. Lower frequencies of circulating suppressive regulatory T cells and higher frequencies of CD4⁺ naïve T cells at baseline are associated with severe immune-related adverse events in immune checkpoint inhibitor-treated melanoma. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer  2024; 12:e008056. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2023-008056