Dendritic cell-mediated immunization in macroglobulinemia

Madhav V Dhodapkar1

  • 1Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA.

Seminars in Oncology
|April 30, 2003
PubMed

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) specialized to initiate immunity and are critical targets for all vaccines. New methods to generate large quantities of these cells in the laboratory and load them with tumor antigens allows novel approaches targeting these APCs in the clinic. Injection of antigen loaded DCs can boost tumor-specific immunity in patients. Studies in myeloma suggest that the use of autologous tumor as a source of antigen may be the preferred approach. Boosting antitumor immunity may be a useful strategy to prevent tumor progression in patients with asymptomatic macroglobulinemia.