Overview Of Dendritic Cell Vaccines For Brain Tumors

Tumor induced t cell exhaustion may be reversed through immune checkpoint blockade icb.

Overview of dendritic cell vaccines for brain tumors.

The vaccine is called dcvax l. Dc vaccine has been introduced as a new therapeutic strategy in cancer patients. 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.

4 clinical trials underway have demonstrated the successful application of dc vaccines to induce antitumor. This is combined with dendritic immune cells from the person s blood. Dendritic cells guide the response of t cells to fight off invaders. 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.

Dc based immunotherapy is safe and can promote antitumor immune responses and prolonged survival of cancer patients. Additionally in the presence of a tumor there can be significant blood brain barrier breakdown as well as tumor infiltrating dendritic cells macrophages and b and t lymphocytes. This new vaccine approach focuses on dendritic cells which brody calls the generals of the immune system s army. However this treatment fails to show clinical benefit in many patients.

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. 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.