{"entity":{"id":"paper-yee-t-cell-vitiligo-jem-2000","kind":"paper","name":"Melanocyte destruction after antigen-specific immunotherapy of melanoma: direct evidence of T cell-mediated vitiligo","aka":[],"tldr":"A report of one patient whose infused melanoma-targeting T cells also attacked normal pigment cells in the skin, which the authors called the first direct evidence in humans that such cells can harm healthy tissue carrying the same protein.","summary":"A patient with metastatic melanoma developed inflammatory lesions around pigmented areas of skin after an infusion of MART-1-specific CD8+ T-cell clones (Journal of Experimental Medicine 2000). Tetramer analysis showed MART-1-specific CD8+ T cells, identical to the infused clones by CDR3 sequencing, made up more than 28 per cent of CD8 T cells in the skin, and post-infusion biopsies showed loss of MART-1 expression and absence of melanocytes in affected skin (Journal of Experimental Medicine 2000).","asOf":"2026-11-05","links":[{"label":"DOI 10.1084/jem.192.11.1637","url":"https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.192.11.1637"},{"label":"PubMed 11104805","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11104805/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["melanoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["fred-hutch"],"pathways":[],"terms":["endogenous-t-cell-therapy"],"trials":[],"people":["cassian-yee"],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"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":"The Journal of Experimental Medicine","year":2000,"doi":"10.1084/jem.192.11.1637","pmid":"11104805","authors":"Yee C, Thompson JA, Roche P, Byrd DR, Lee PP, Piepkorn M, Kenyon K, Davis MM, Riddell SR, Greenberg PD.","paperType":"translational","findings":["Infused MART-1-specific CD8+ T-cell clones were found at more than 28 per cent of all CD8 T cells in skin lesions, identical to the infused clones.","Post-infusion skin biopsies showed loss of MART-1 expression, melanocyte damage and complete absence of melanocytes in affected regions."],"whatItMeans":"Targeting a protein that tumours share with normal cells can damage those normal cells too; the authors state this was the first direct evidence of it in humans, which shaped later thinking on on-target, off-tumour toxicity.","caveats":["A single patient."],"participants":1},"route":"/key-papers/paper-yee-t-cell-vitiligo-jem-2000/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"}],"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/"}]}}