An update on Dendritic Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapy

Abstract

Although treating advanced cancers that affect organs with distant metastasis remains challenging, the pace of recent advances has accelerated; these advances have particularly focused on the inhibitors of key immune potentiates. Research on therapeutic vaccination involving active dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy is also being performed for the induction of an efficient immune response against cancer-associated antigens by the acquired immune system. Cancer vaccines prepared with autologous monocyte-derived mature DCs have been generated using granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-4, which are principally attributed to the presence of tumor-associated antigens. Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) is an attractive target antigen that is widely detected in many cancers. DC-based immunotherapy targeting WT1 may elicit a strong therapeutic response to cancers. DC vaccines primed with HLA class I/II-restricted WT1 peptides (WT1-DC) are a feasible option for patients with advanced cancers. Immune response monitoring using tetramer analysis and/or enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay has been applied to determine the efficacy of WT1-DC. The inhibition of immune suppressors and acceleration of anti-cancer immunity with WT1-DC may comprise a promising future therapeutic strategy for treating advanced cancers.