Clinical trials of this therapeutic approach will begin soon, according to study investigators.
Dendritic cells pick up tumor peptides during the pre-treatment process.
Dendritic cells themselves also carry surface molecules that are needed to co-stimulate killer T cells together with tumor peptide. In their study, the researchers found that tumors disappeared in more than 80 percent of animals in each of the three tumor groups. Dendritic cells pre-treated with tumor peptides for a specific cancer were only effective against mouse tumors with that peptide. For example, dendritic cells pre-treated with the tumor peptide taken from lung cancer cells only effectively treated mice with lung tumors. Healthy mice that were vaccinated with the pre-treated dendritic cells failed to develop cancer when they were later injected with tumor cells, suggesting that the mice developed a lasting immunity to specific cancers.