Dendritic cell-based vaccine for cancer

Abstract

Although cancer vaccines could not show the evidence of their therapeutic effects in phase III clinical trials, two dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccines, sipuleucel-T (Provenge(r)) and DCVax(r)-Brain, are approved in the USA and Switzerland, respectively. Furthermore, pivotal randomized phase III trials of several DC vaccines are ongoing in the USA and Europe. The promising data are also shown in retrospective as well as prospective clinical studies by using Japanese DC vaccine Vaccell(r) that we are engaged in development; therefore, its large-scale prospective clinical trial is now preparing. In this chapter, I introduce the results of representative clinical trials including sipuleucel-T and DCVax(r) and the process of Vaccell(r) development, consider the advantages of the DC vaccine for conventional vaccine, and discuss the problems and future prospects of the DC vaccine.