Dendritic cell immunotherapy in soft tissue sarcoma

Soft tissue sarcomas represent a rare but diverse family of tumors affecting patients of all ages. Conventional chemotherapy rarely eradicates metastatic disease and newer targeted agents are successful in only very specific histologic subgroups. Therefore, scientists and clinicians are investigating immunotherapy techniques, primarily involving cellular immunity focused on the T-cell response to tumor antigens. In both animal models and human sarcoma trials, dendritic cells have been shown to induce an effective antitumor immune response. Radiotherapy, particularly when delivered in a hypofractionated manner prior to sarcoma excision, may potentiate the function of the dendritic cells through the induction of apoptosis. The synergistic effect may carry over to other cancer types and warrants further multidisciplinary investigation.