CD8+ T cells specific for cancer germline gene antigens are found in many patients with multiple myeloma, and their frequency correlates with disease burden.

The expression of cancer germline antigens (CGAgs) is normally restricted to the testis but is also present in many types of malignant cells including plasma cells from patients with myeloma. Because T-cell immune responses to CGAg have been identified in patients with solid tumors, this may offer a novel target for immunotherapy in patients with myeloma. We have used 12 peptide epitopes from a range of CGAgs to screen for CGAg-specific T cells in blood from patients with multiple myeloma at various stages of their disease. T cells from 15 of 37 patients responded to one or more CGAg peptides and the magnitude of the CGAg-specific CD8+ T-cell response ranged between 0.0004% and 0.1% of the total CD8+ T-cell pool. Serial analyses showed that these immune responses were detectable in individual patients at multiple time points during the course of their disease. In patients undergoing treatment or in disease relapse, the magnitude of the CGAg-specific T-cell response was positively correlated with the level of paraprotein. Functional T cells specific for CGAgs are therefore present in a proportion of patients with multiple myeloma and offer the possibility of a novel approach for immunotherapy in this disease.