Results of a Phase II clinical trial with Id-protein-loaded dendritic cell vaccine in multiple myeloma: encouraging or discouraging?

Evaluation of: Zahradova L, Mollova K, Ocadlikova D et al. Efficacy and safety of Id-protein-loaded dendritic cell vaccine in patients with multiple myeloma – Phase II study results. Neoplasma 59(4), 440–449 (2012). Recently gained insight into the role of dendritic cells (DCs) as APCs has attracted the attention of many researchers who hope to use them as a tool in immunotherapy for the induction of tumor-specific immunity in cancer settings. Despite high expectations, in multiple myeloma patients the results of DC-based vaccines in terms of clinical response have been disappointing. The findings of Zahradova et al. in a Phase II clinical trial with multiple myeloma patients corroborated these results. Although no clinical responses were observed, the investigators induced immunity after vaccination with Id-protein-loaded DC vaccine in some patients. These immunological results showed a trend towards a longer duration of stable disease in those patients that received the vaccination. Moreover, this study...