Abstract
Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen-presenting cells specialized to initiate and regulate T-cell immune responses. Many clinical trials using antigen-pulsed DC have been reported recently. We performed a phase I clinical vaccination trial on melanoma patients using peptide-pulsed DC and observed clinical and immunological responses consisting of anti-tumor responses in 2 patients and significant expansion of antigen specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of 1 patient. Our data indicate that the vaccination of peptide-pulsed DC is capable of inducing clinical and systemic tumor-specific immune responses. But the clinical response was not satisfactory, indicating that a variety of immune escape mechanisms are operative at the tumor site and have to be overcome for successful vaccination. [Skin Cancer (Japan) 2004; 19: 7-15]
