Dendritic-Cell Tumor Vaccines

Most cancers remain incurable. Introduction of novel therapeutic methods, including new cytostatic regimens and targeted therapies, such as monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, have increased remission rates as well as improved patient survival, but the ability to cure many cancer patients remains elusive. It is thus necessary to further develop alternative strategies to improve patient prognosis. The majority of patients who respond to induction therapy inevitably relapse, mainly because of the proliferation of residual malignant cells that have escaped control by induction chemotherapy. Therefore the eradication of minimal residual disease may be crucial to prevent a relapse and achieve a long-term remission. It seems that an advantageous treatment option may be cellular immunotherapy with dendritic-cell vaccines which might induce long-term specific anticancer responses with immune memory cells, which could contribute to effective and lasting elimination of malignant cells.