Review:On dendritic cell-based therapy for cancers

Dendritic cells(DCs),the most prevalent antigen-presenting cell in vivo,had been widely characterized in the lastthree decades.DCs are present in almost all tissues of the body and play cardinal roles in recognition of microbial agents,autoantigens,allergens and alloantigen.DCs process the microbial agents or their antigens and migrate to lymphoid tissues topresent the antigenic peptide to lymphocytes.This leads to activation of antigen-specific lymphocytes.Initially,it was assumedthat DCs are principally involved in the induction and maintenance of adaptive immune responses,but now it is evident that DCsalso have important roles in innate immunity.These features make DCs very good candidates for therapy against variouspathological conditions including malignancies.Initially,DC-based therapy was used in animal models of cancers.Data fromthese studies inspired considerable optimism and DC-based therapies was started in human cancers 8 years ago.In general,DC-based therapy has been found to be safe in pati