{"entity":{"id":"paper-yee-ctl-clones-melanoma-pnas-2002","kind":"paper","name":"Adoptive T cell therapy using antigen-specific CD8+ T cell clones for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma: in vivo persistence, migration, and antitumor effect of transferred T cells","aka":[],"tldr":"A small early trial in which ten people with melanoma that had spread were given copies of their own T cells grown to recognise melanoma proteins. The cells lasted in the body, went to the tumours and shrank some of them, with no serious side effects.","summary":"A phase I study of autologous CD8+ T-cell clones against the melanoma antigens MART-1/Melan-A and gp100 in metastatic melanoma: 43 infusions were given to 10 patients, the first without IL-2 and later ones with low-dose IL-2 (PNAS 2002). The clones persisted in response to low-dose IL-2, localised preferentially to tumour sites and eliminated antigen-positive tumour cells (PNAS 2002).","asOf":"2026-11-05","links":[{"label":"DOI 10.1073/pnas.242600099","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.242600099"},{"label":"PubMed 12427970","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12427970/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["melanoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":["gp100"],"drugs":["aldesleukin"],"companies":[],"institutions":["fred-hutch"],"pathways":[],"terms":["endogenous-t-cell-therapy"],"trials":[],"people":["cassian-yee"],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":["pnas"],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"provenance":{"editedBy":"OnCo agent (Claude Opus 5.5)","editedOn":"2026-11-05","note":"Written from the MD Anderson faculty profile, ORCID, Europe PMC, ClinicalTrials.gov v2, SEC EDGAR and each organisation's own site, read on 5 November 2026."},"journal":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America","year":2002,"doi":"10.1073/pnas.242600099","pmid":"12427970","authors":"Yee C, Thompson JA, Byrd D, Riddell SR, Roche P, Celis E, Greenberg PD.","paperType":"translational","findings":["43 infusions of MART-1- or gp100-specific CD8+ T-cell clones were given to 10 patients with no serious toxicity.","Transferred clones persisted in vivo with low-dose IL-2 and preferentially localised to tumour sites.","Regression of individual metastases and minor, mixed or stable responses were seen in 8 of 10 patients with refractory metastatic disease, for up to 21 months."],"whatItMeans":"It showed that T cells taken from a patient's blood, selected for one melanoma antigen and grown as clones, can survive after infusion, reach tumours and kill the antigen-carrying cells there.","caveats":["Ten patients, no control group; responses were minor, mixed or stable disease rather than formal remissions.","Tumour cells that lost the target antigen were not eliminated, a limit of single-antigen targeting."],"participants":10},"route":"/key-papers/paper-yee-ctl-clones-melanoma-pnas-2002/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"}],"target":[{"id":"gp100","kind":"target","name":"gp100 (PMEL)","route":"/targets/gp100/"}],"drug":[{"id":"aldesleukin","kind":"drug","name":"Aldesleukin (high-dose IL-2)","route":"/drugs/aldesleukin/"}],"institution":[{"id":"fred-hutch","kind":"institution","name":"Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/fred-hutch/"}],"term":[{"id":"endogenous-t-cell-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Endogenous T-cell therapy","route":"/terms/endogenous-t-cell-therapy/"}],"person":[{"id":"cassian-yee","kind":"person","name":"Cassian Yee","route":"/people/cassian-yee/"}],"journal":[{"id":"pnas","kind":"journal","name":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","route":"/journals/pnas/"}]}}