Melanoma immune response to checkpoint blockers plus personalized neoantigen vaccines
Dissecting melanoma-specific clonal T cell populations in patients treated with neoadjuvant immune checkpoint inhibition and personal neoantigen peptide vaccines.
This project tests whether giving checkpoint-blocking drugs before surgery together with a personalized peptide vaccine helps people with melanoma grow stronger tumor-fighting T cells.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Dana-Farber Cancer Inst NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11293983 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would get standard neoadjuvant immunotherapy (nivolumab plus ipilimumab) before surgery along with a personalized long-peptide neoantigen vaccine made from your tumor's mutations. Doctors will collect tumor biopsies and blood samples before and after treatment and use single-cell and genetic methods to track the specific T cells that target the tumor. The team will compare how vaccine plus checkpoint blockade changes the number, state, and clones of tumor-reactive T cells versus what is seen with checkpoint drugs alone. Results aim to show which T cell populations correlate with better tumor control and could guide future personalized treatments.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are people with resectable melanoma who are eligible for neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibitor therapy and willing to provide tumor biopsies and blood samples and travel to the treatment center.
Not a fit: Patients with non-melanoma cancers, unresectable disease, or medical contraindications to checkpoint inhibitors or vaccination may not be eligible or likely to benefit from this trial.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this approach could boost durable tumor control and reduce the risk of melanoma coming back by increasing effective tumor-killing T cells.
How similar studies have performed: Personalized neoantigen vaccines and neoadjuvant checkpoint blockade have shown promising clinical results in recent trials, though combining them with deep single-cell analysis is a newer approach.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Dana-Farber Cancer Inst — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Ott, Patrick Alexander — Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
- Study coordinator: Ott, Patrick Alexander
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.