Dendritic/tumor fusion cell-based vaccination against cancer.
A promising area of investigation is the use of cancer vaccines to eliminate residual tumor cells. Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent professional antigen-presenting cells able to induce primary immune responses. DCs capture and process antigens into peptides and present them to T cells and B cells through MHC class I and II molecules. An alternative approach to the induction of antitumor immunity is the use of fusions of DCs and tumor cells. In this approach, a broad spectrum of tumor-associated antigens, including those known and unidentified, are processed endogenously and presented by MHC class I and II pathways in the context of costimulatory signals. In animal studies, vaccination with DC/tumor fusion cells results in the elimination of established lung metastasis. Preclinical human studies have demonstrated that DC/tumor fusion cells induce antigen-specific polyclonal cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses against autologous tumor in vitro. In clinical studies, vaccination of cancer patients with autologous DC/tumor fusion cells is associated with immunological and clinical responses in a subset of patients. Future studies should be investigated to improve the immunogenicity of DC/tumor fusion cell preparations. This review provides a general overview of the DC/tumor fusion cell-based vaccine and summarizes some of the recent advances in this field.
Koido
Shigeo
S
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. shigeo_koido@jikei.ac.jp
Hara
Eiichi
E
Homma
Sadamu
S
Fujise
Kiyotaka
K
Gong
Jianlin
J
Tajiri
Hisao
H
D000818:Animals; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002459:Cell Fusion; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*
D019496:Cancer Vaccines