Abstract
The prognosis of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains dismal, with a 5-year overall survival rate of only 5.2% for the continuously growing subgroup of AML patients older than 65 years. These patients are generally not considered eligible for intensive chemotherapy and/or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation because of high treatment-related morbidity and mortality, emphasizing the need for novel, less toxic, treatment alternatives. It is within this context that immunotherapy has gained attention in recent years. In this review, we focus on the use of dendritic cell (DC) vaccines for immunotherapy of AML. DC are central orchestrators of the immune system, bridging innate and adaptive immunity and critical to the induction of anti-leukemic immunity. We discuss the rationale and basic principles of DC-based therapy for AML and review the clinical experience that has been obtained so far with this form of immunotherapy for patients with AML.
Acknowledgements
This work was made possible by funding from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen), the Flemish League against Cancer (Vlaamse Liga tegen Kanker), the Belgian National Cancer Plan (initiative 29), the Belgian Foundation against Cancer (Stichting tegen Kanker) and the Belgian public utility foundation VOCATIO. SA is a PhD fellow and ELS a post-doctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders. YW is a PhD fellow of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen). EL holds an Emmanuel van der Schueren Fellowship of the Flemish League against Cancer.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.