Therapeutic cancer vaccination against mutant calreticulin in myeloproliferative neoplasms induces expansion of specific T cells in the periphery but specific T cells fail to enrich in the bone marrow

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic cancer vaccination against mutant calreticulin (CALR) in patients with CALR-mutant (CALRmut) myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) induces strong T-cell responses against mutant CALR yet fails to demonstrate clinical activity. Infiltration of tumor specific T cells into the tumor microenvironment is needed to attain a clinical response to therapeutic cancer vaccination.

AIM: Determine if CALRmut specific T cells isolated from vaccinated patients enrich in the bone marrow upon completion of vaccination and explore possible explanations for the lack of enrichment.

METHODS: CALRmut specific T cells from four of ten vaccinated patients were expanded, enriched, and analyzed by T-cell receptor sequencing (TCRSeq). The TCRs identified were used as fingerprints of CALRmut specific T cells. Bone marrow aspirations from the four patients were acquired at baseline and at the end of trial. T cells were enriched from the bone marrow aspirations and analyzed by TCRSeq to identify the presence and fraction of CALRmut specific T cells at the two different time points. In silico calculations were performed to calculate the ratio between transformed cells and effector cells in patients with CALRmut MPN.

RESULTS: The fraction of CALRmut specific T cells in the bone marrow did not increase upon completion of the vaccination trial. In general, the T cell repertoire in the bone marrow remains relatively constant through the vaccination trial. The enriched and expanded CALRmut specific T cells recognize peripheral blood autologous CALRmut cells. In silico analyses demonstrate a high imbalance in the fraction of CALRmut cells and CALRmut specific effector T-cells in peripheral blood.

CONCLUSION: CALRmut specific T cells do not enrich in the bone marrow after therapeutic cancer peptide vaccination against mutant CALR. The specific T cells recognize autologous peripheral blood derived CALRmut cells. In silico analyses demonstrate a high imbalance between the number of transformed cells and CALRmut specific effector T-cells in the periphery. We suggest that the high burden of transformed cells in the periphery compared to the number of effector cells could impact the ability of specific T cells to enrich in the bone marrow.