title: Hematopoietic growth factors, dendritic cell biology, and vaccine therapy of cancer.
abstract: Hematopoietic growth factors have made it possible to collect, manufacture, and engineer dendritic cells ex vivo for clinical use and expand dendritic cell subsets in vivo when administered to patients. Dendritic cells are important vectors in the induction of an effective immune response against infection and neoplastic disease. Antigens alone, even those preprocessed to bind to antigen-presenting major histocompatibility complex class I and II molecules, are insufficient to regulate effective T-cell-mediated immunity. Activated dendritic cells are essential to this task. Studies of dendritic cell biology in the laboratory and preclinical studies have facilitated the implementation of clinical trials using dendritic cells in the treatment of melanoma and other cancers. Dendritic cell subset functional differences, effective tumor target antigen loading of dendritic cells for presentation to immune effector cells, dendritic cell maturation, the route of dendritic cell administration to humans, and immunologic monitoring are parameters that require vigorous study in the context of dendritic cell immunotherapy of cancer.
authors.affiliation: Immunologic Therapy for Cancer, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75247, USA. jw.fay@baylordallas.edu
authors.forename: Joseph W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Fay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D016298:Hematopoietic Cell Growth Factors / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D016298:Hematopoietic Cell Growth Factors