Immune response to polyvalent melanoma cell vaccine in AJCC stage III melanoma: An immunologic survival model

Background: Our polyvalent, allogeneic melanoma cell vaccine (MCV) induces immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) class antibodies to a 90-kDa glycoprotein melanoma-associated antigen (MAA). Additionally, MCV induces delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses that we previously correlated with survival. We hypothesized that early DTH responses to MCV and early humoral responses to the 90-kDa MAA expressed on MCV cells may be predictive of overall survival. We tested this hypothesis by monitoring immunologic profiles in 59 patients with melanoma who were receiving MCV after surgical resection of regional lymph node or soft-tissue metastases.