title: Immunotherapy with dendritic cells for cancer.
abstract: Dendritic cells are professional antigen-presenting cells with a key role in both immunity induction and tolerance maintenance. Dendritic cells are highly specialized in antigen capture, processing and presentation, and express co-stimulation signals which activate T lymphocytes and NK cells. Dendritic cells generated in culture and loaded with an antigen efficiently induce antigen-specific immunity after injection. More recently, methods have been developed that target antigens to dendritic cells in vivo, bypassing the need for ex vivo cell manipulations. Numerous ongoing studies aim to evaluate the effectiveness of dendritic cell vaccines in preventing tumor relapses and extending patients' survival. Further implementation of this form of immunotherapy is expected following the identification of the mechanisms controlling dendritic cell immunogenicity, and from a better understanding of the cell dynamics whereby immune responses are orchestrated. Here, we discuss these new insights together with an overview of the dendritic cell-based clinical studies carried out to date.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ballestrero
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boy
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cirmena
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brossart
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nencioni
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines