Dendritic cell vaccination

Abstract

There has been a surge of interest in the use of dendritic cell (DC) vaccination as cellular immunotherapy for numerous cancers. Despite some encouraging results, this therapeutic modality is far from being considered as a therapy for cancer. This review will first discuss preclinical DC vaccination in murine models of cancer, with an emphasis on comparative studies investigating different methods of antigen priming. We will then comment on the various murine DC subsets and how these relate to human DC preparations used for clinical studies. Finally, the methodology used to generate human DCs and some recent clinical trials in several cancers are reviewed.

Keywords::

• cancer therapy
• cell vaccination
• clinical trial
• cytotoxic T cells
• dendritic cell
• dendritic cell therapy
• immunotherapy
• vaccination
• vaccine

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for providing funding for the development of breast cancer vaccines.

Financial disclosure

Bruce E Loveland is a consultant to a Biotech company involved in ex vivo DC therapy.