Examining the immune response in sentinel lymph nodes of mice and men

Recently, it was recognized that an immune response develops along one of t wo major pathways. One leads to a destructive immune response (type I), whi le the alternative leads to a nondestructive immune response (type 2). Our studies in animal models suggest that therapeutic vaccines induce a tumor-s pecific type immune response while ineffective vaccines induce a type 2 res ponse. These results have led us to examine the immune response in sentinel lymph nodes draining tumor vaccines of patients entered onto clinical tria ls for melanoma, breast and renal cell cancer.