Cancer immunotherapy modulates the immune system, overcomes immune escape and stimulates immune defenses against tumors. Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional promoters of immune responses against tumor antigens with the outstanding ability to coordinate the innate and adaptive immune systems. Evidence suggests that there is a decrease in both the number and function of DCs in cancer patients. Therefore, they represent a strong scaffold for therapeutic interventions. DC vaccination (DCV) is safe, and the antitumoral responses induced are well established in solid tumors. Although the addition of checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) to chemotherapy has provided new options in the treatment of cancer, they have shown no clinical benefit in immune desert tumors or in those tumors with dysfunctional or exhausted T-cells. In this way, DC-based therapy has demonstrated the ability to modify the tumor microenvironment for immune enriched tumors and to potentiate systemic host immune responses as an active approach to treating cancer patients. Application of DCV in cancer seeks to obtain long-term antitumor responses through an improved T-cell priming by enhancing previous or generating de novo immune responses. To date, DCV has induced immune responses in the peripheral blood of patients without a significant clinical impact on outcome. Thus, improvements in vaccines formulations, selection of patients based on biomarkers and combinations with other antitumoral therapies are needed to enhance patient survival. In this work, we review the role of DCV in different solid tumors with their strengths and weaknesses, and we finally mention new trends to improve the efficacy of this immune strategy.
癌症免疫疗法通过调节免疫系统，克服免疫逃逸机制并激发机体对肿瘤的免疫防御。树突状细胞作为针对肿瘤抗原免疫应答的专业启动者，具有协调先天性与适应性免疫系统的卓越能力。研究表明，癌症患者体内树突状细胞的数量和功能均呈现下降趋势，这使其成为极具潜力的治疗干预靶点。树突状细胞疫苗疗法安全性良好，其在实体瘤中诱导的抗肿瘤免疫应答机制已得到充分验证。尽管化疗联合免疫检查点抑制剂为癌症治疗提供了新选择，但该方案在免疫荒漠型肿瘤或T细胞功能失调/耗竭的肿瘤中尚未显现临床获益。基于树突状细胞的疗法已证实能够重塑免疫富集型肿瘤的微环境，并通过增强系统性宿主免疫应答成为治疗癌症患者的有效策略。树突状细胞疫苗在癌症治疗中的应用，旨在通过增强既有免疫应答或激发新生免疫反应来改善T细胞启动，从而获得长期抗肿瘤效应。迄今为止，该疗法虽能在患者外周血中诱导免疫应答，但尚未对临床结局产生显著影响。因此，需要从疫苗配方优化、基于生物标志物的患者筛选以及联合其他抗肿瘤疗法等方面进行改进，以提升患者生存获益。本文系统综述了树突状细胞疫苗在不同实体瘤治疗中的作用机制及其优势与局限，并最终探讨了提升该免疫策略疗效的新兴研究方向。
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家