[Dendritic cell therapy for malignant glioma]

Despite advances in radiation and chemotherapy along with surgical resectioning, the prognosis of patients with malignant glioma is poor. Among the new treatments currently being investigated for malignant glioma, immunotherapy is theoretically very attractive, since it offers the potential for high tumor-specific cytotoxicity. There are increasing reports demonstrating that systemic immunotherapy using dendritic cells is capable of inducing an antiglioma response. Therefore, dendritic cell-based immunotherapy could be a new treatment modality for patients with glioma. Dendritic cell-based immunotherapy strategies appear promising as an approach to successfully induce an antitumor immune response and increase survival in patients with glioma. The development of methods for manipulating dendritic cells for the purpose of vaccination will enhance the clinical usefulness of these cells for biotherapy for malignant glioma.