Peripheral Blood CD8highCD57+ Lymphocyte Levels May Predict Outcome in Melanoma Patients Treated with Adjuvant Interferon-α

The objective of this study was to evaluate the significance of CD8highCD57+ lymphocytes for the survival of high risk melanoma patients treated with adjuvant interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha). The prognostic significance of peripheral blood CD8highCD57+ lymphocyte levels for survival was analysed retrospectively in 16 IFN-alpha-treated melanoma patients with resected regional lymph node metastases. The survival of the patients was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The difference between survival curves was determined using the log-rank test. The median survival time of patients with >23% CD8highCD57+ lymphocytes prior to treatment with IFN-alpha was 14.2 months, whereas the median survival time of patients with < 23% CD8highCD57+ lymphocytes was not reached at the time of analysis (median follow-up 24.6 months). Larger prospective studies are justified to investigate the precise value of CD8highCD57+ lymphocytes in the selection of melanoma patients for adjuvant treatment with IFN-alpha.