Antitumour immune response and cancer vaccination: The critical role of dendritic cells

Increasing the capacity of the immune system to mediate tumour regression h as been a major goal in tumour immunology. Progress towards this goal has b een recently aided by the identification of immunogenic cancer antigens and by a better understanding of the mechanisms of T-cell immune response and tumour escape. A rare antigen-presenting cell - the dendritic cell (DC) - a ppears to be the key to these mechanisms. The possibility of generating the se cells in vitro from blood precursors has initiated a new era in cancer i mmunotherapy. Using DC as a cancer vaccine adjuvant has lad to reports of m easurable immune responses, and, in a few cases, to complete disease respon ses in patients with B-cell lymphoma and melanoma.