A comprehensive update to Dendritic Cell therapy for glioma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Gliomas are major challenges of neuro-oncology due to high mortality. Clinical applications of dendritic cells (DCs) have yielded promising results in the clinical trial pipelines over decades. Research design In this systematic review, we critically discuss the current status, future perspective, and challenges of DC therapy for gliomas . and summarize the study population, blinding, comparators, dosage, treatment regimens, efficacy, and safety issues of the clinical trials published on DC therapy for gliomas and also report the results of our meta-analysis on safety and immunological efficacy of DC therapy for gliomas. Results The results of our meta-analysis indicated that the most frequent grade I/II adverse event (AE) reported in phase I or phase I/II trials was fatigue (similar to 16% and 24%). Moreover, in phase II trials, fatigue and cytopenia were the most common AEs (similar to 9% and 14%). Meanwhile, Grade III/IV AEs were rare . Moreover, our meta-analysis indicated similar to 64% CD8+ T cells infiltration into tumor site after DC therapy and also similar to 45% IFN gamma increase. Conclusions DC therapy could serve as a potential immunotherapy for gliomas; however, limitations exist to draw certain conclusions due to diversity of the criteria applied to assess clinical response and limited data on patients' survival.