Dendritic Cell-Based Cancer Therapies: Current Status and Future Directions

Cancer immunotherapy is a growing field that focuses on manipulating the immune system to better target cancer. Dendritic cells (DCs) have been identified as a potential component of cancer vaccines. DCs present tumor-specific antigens to T cells in order to generate tumor-specific immunity. Animal model experiments have shown that DCs loaded with tumor antigen ex vivo and administered into tumor-bearing hosts can elicit tumor-specific T cell-mediated clearance of tumor targets. In human cancer patients, antigen-loaded DCs have been tested in multiple clinical trials as therapeutic vaccines. Clinical trials in patients with several different cancers, including malignant lymphoma, melanoma, and prostate cancer, have suggested that DC-mediated antigen presentation leads to increased anticancer immunity. For these trials, there are some important considerations: selection of the tumor-specific antigen, efficient introduction of the antigen into DCs for processing and presentation to the activated T cells, preparation of the correct amount of DCs, and route of administration of DCs to patients. With further research and refinement, DC vaccination may prove both efficacious and widely applicable to human tumors.