4 clinical trials underway have demonstrated the successful application of dc vaccines to induce antitumor.
Overview of dendritic cell vaccines for brain tumors.
Tumor cells however hijack the immune system causing t cell exhaustion and dc dysfunction.
Tumor induced t cell exhaustion may be reversed through immune checkpoint blockade icb.
Dendritic cells guide the response of t cells to fight off invaders.
Dc based immunotherapy is safe and can promote antitumor immune responses and prolonged survival of cancer patients.
It s made with tissue from each participant s brain tumor.
However this treatment fails to show clinical benefit in many patients.
That being said once inside the cns the action of the immune system and the potential for antitumor response is markedly different from other sites in the body.
Dendritic cells dcs are essential in immunity owing to their role in activating t cells thereby promoting antitumor responses.
Gliomas typically arise from two different cell types in the brain astrocytes or oligodendrocytes.
Brain tumors are a diverse group of biologically and pathologically distinct intracranial neoplasms that include tumors of neuroepithelial tissue gliomas meningeal tumors and primary lymphomas of the central nervous system non gliomas see buckner et al 2007 for review.
This is combined with dendritic immune cells from the person s blood.
The vaccine is called dcvax l.
Of the various forms of immunotherapy dendritic cell dc based therapies are well situated to be used to induce antitumor immunity given the specialized ability of dcs to both prime and or boost innate and adaptive immune responses.
Dc vaccine has been introduced as a new therapeutic strategy in cancer patients.