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Lymphoproliferative disorders, including follicular lymphoma (FL),
multiple myeloma (MM) and chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL), are slowly
progressive malignancies which remain incurable despite advances in therapy.
Harnessing the immune system to recognise and destroy tumours is a promising
new approach to treating these diseases. Dendritic cells (DC) are unique
antigen-presenting cells that play a central role in the initiation and
direction of immune responses. DC loaded ex vivo with tumour-associated
antigens and administered as a vaccine have already shown promise in early
clinical trials for a number of lymphoproliferative disorders, but the need
for improvement is widely agreed. Recent advances in the understanding of
basic DC biology and lessons from early clinical trials have provided
exciting new insights into the generation of anti-tumour immune responses
and the design of vaccine strategies. In this review we provide an overview
of our current understanding of DC biology and their function in patients
with lymphoproliferative disorders. We discuss the current status of
clinical trials and new approaches to exploit the antigen presenting
capacity of DC to design vaccines of the future.
Reference:
Pathology.
2005 Dec;37(6):534-50. |