PRAME, a gene encoding an antigen recognized on a human melanoma by cytolytic T cells, is expressed in acute leukaemia cells

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Abstract
Gene PRAME was found to encode an antigen recognized on a human melanoma cell line by an autologous cytolytic T‐lymphocyte clone. This gene is expressed at a high level in a very large fraction of tumours, such as melanomas, non‐small‐cell lung carcinomas, sarcomas, head and neck tumours and renal carcinomas. It is therefore a candidate for tumour immunotherapy even though some low expression is found in certain normal tissues. We tested by RT‐PCR the expression of PRAME on more than 250 bone marrow or blood samples from patients with a haematological malignancy. Approximately 25% of the acute leukaemia samples were positive. Remarkably, all acute myeloblastic leukaemias that carried the chromosomal translocation t(8;21), which fuses the genes AML1 and ETO, expressed PRAME at a high level.