Antitumor Memory T-Cells Become Functionally Mature from 30 to 100 days in a Mouse Model of Neoplasia.

BACKGROUND: Late metastases develop from cancer of the breast, prostate, lung, kidney and malignant melanomas. Memory T-cells have excellent potential to prevent this devastating development in the same way that they routinely prevent emergence of latent viruses.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A peritoneal tumor mouse model of viral oncotherapy was used to generate therapeutic antitumor memory T-cells. Functional in vivo and in vitro assays were used to study the temporal evolution of their anticancer effects.

RESULTS: Highly therapeutic antitumor memory was generated by viral oncolytic immunotherapy 30 days after treatment and matured to maximal potency at 100 days. Maturation was not uniform across different measures.

CONCLUSION: The results provide guidelines for developing a viral oncolytic vaccine strategy to generate antitumor memory T-cells that can eliminate small nests of metastatic cancer cells in sanctuary sites and prevent emergence of tumors from dormant cancer cell collections. The results are relevant to any immunization strategy designed to generate antitumor memory T-cells.