Dendritic cells in cancer vaccines

Dendritic cells (DC) are recognized as the most potent antigen-presenting c ells with the ability to stimulate naive resting T cells and to initiate pr imary immune responses. Encouraging results in vaccination studies in anima l models and the development of protocols to generate sufficient numbers of human DC for clinical application have led to attempts to verify the feasi bility and efficacy of this approach in patients in the context of Phase I/ II vaccination trials. This review aims to present a concise overview of th e current knowledge in DC development and biology and describes the recent data of the first published DC-based vaccination studies. These preliminary trials indicate that immunotherapies utilizing DC-presenting tumor-associa ted antigens can safely be administered to patients with cancer and induce significant immunologic and clinical responses. (C) 2001 International Soci ety for Experimental Hematology. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.