Pancreatic adenocarcinoma exerts systemic effects on the peripheral blood myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells: an indicator of disease severity?

Background Dendritic cells (DCs) isolated from tumor bearing animals or from individuals with solid tumors display functional abnormalities and the DC impairment has emerged as one mechanism for tumor evasion from the control of the immune system. Ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common pancreatic cancer, is recognized as a very aggressive cancer type with a mortality that almost matches the rate of incidence.