Figure 2.

SKILs analysis in time. Skin-test infiltrating lymphocytes from DTH skin-test biopsies were analyzed for the presence of tetramer-positive CD8⁺ T cells (A) and a functional T cell response against individual epitopes (B). Three epitopes were tested, gp100:154, gp100:280, and tyrosinase. Unfilled/filled circles represent negative/positive tests. The black, red, and blue circles match to the first, second, and third cycle of vaccinations, respectively. Tumor-specific T cells are already seen after the first cycle in a large amount of patients. T cells against other epitopes were detected in a proportion of patients after cycle 2 and 3. However, in some patients T cells against an epitope were not detected after a positive result in the previous cycle. This is more often seen for tetramer-positive T cells than for a functional T cell response. The distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) of each individual patient is shown with a cut-off at 5 y. Arrows indicate an ongoing DMFS.