Dendritic cells vaccine(Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la cura dei Tumori)

A review.The research of Hegmans et al. (Consolidative dendritic cell-based immunotherapy elicits cytotoxicity against malignant mesothelioma, Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2010 181:1383-1390), which reports the results of a phase I clin. trial involving standard combination chemotherapy followed by tumor lysatepulsed dendritic cell (DC) vaccination in patients with epithelioid MPM, with the primary aim being the assessment of safety and immunol. responses, is reviewed.The authors showed that tumor lysatepulsed DC administration in MPM patients was safe, with neither common toxicity criteria (CrC) grade 3/4 toxicities nor any evidence of adverse autoimmunity.In the study design, the investigators ensured proper DC maturation after pulsing the immature DCs with tumor lysate by administration of a cocktail of maturation cytokines including IL-6, LL-113, TNF-, and prostaglandin E2.The authors concluded that autologous tumor lysate-pulsed DC-based therapy is feasible, well-tolerated, and capable of inducing immunol. responses to tumor cells in MPM patients.Overall, the study conducted by Hegmans and coworkers is an important contribution, given that it is the first report of clin. use of an autologous DC vaccine in MPM.This study also supports the safety of DC vaccines in MPM, and the putative role of immunotherapy in the multimodality therapy of MPM.