B and T lymphocytes are the effectors of specific immunity. However, their function is critically dependent on dendritic cells (DC). DC are professional antigen presenting cells that both initiate and modulate the immune response. The recent breakthrough in the generation of DC from their progenitors has stimulated research on DC in both fundamental and clinical immunology. Objective immune response induction has now been reported in clinical studies using DC. In this review we discuss the development and potential of DC-based vaccines to induce antitumor immunity.