The rationale for fusing dendritic cells (DCs) with whole tumor cells to generate anticancer vaccines resides in the fact that the former operate as potent antigen-presenting cells, whereas the latter express a constellation of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Although the administration of DC/malignant cell fusions to cancer patients is safe and this immunotherapeutic intervention triggers efficient tumor-specific T-cell responses in vitro, a limited number of objective clinical responses to DC/cancer cell fusions has been reported thus far. This review discusses novel approaches to improve the immunogenicity of DC/malignant cell fusions as anticancer vaccines.
Keywords: cytotoxic T lymphocyte; dendritic cell; fusion; immunogenicity; whole tumor cell.