Fig. 6. Association of early excellent response to anti-PD1 first-line HL treatment with IFN-y response to TAAs and HLA status.
A 2 × 105 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of Hodgkin lymphoma patient (HL) before or under therapy were co-cultured with peptide pools of five tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) separately (BMLF-1, PRAME, MAGE-A4, MAGE-C1, and EBNA-1). Number of samples from patients of treatment arm A (left), arm B (center) and arm A + B (right) divided by >90%MTV reduction is indicated. Patients showing an interferon-gamma (IFN-y) response against at least one of the five tested antigens (black) or no IFN-y response (gray) in FluoroSpot assays are indicated. B beta-2 microglobulin (β2M)/HLA-II expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Number of β2M / HLA-II negative or β2 /HLA-II positive HL patients divided by 90% MTV reduction. C Number of β2M / HLA-II negative or β2M /HLA-II positive HL patients divided by IFN-y response in FluoroSpot assays. Significant differences calculated with two-sided Fisher’s exact test are indicated by asterisks. *p ≤ 0.05.