Battling Cancer

Dendritic cell therapy could be the tumor destroyer? These magical cells play a vital role inside the human body. These cells are crucial to the immune system as they act as Antigen Presenting Cells after recognizing the signal from an invading pathogen and then activate T-cells in order to fight to kill and remove the invader from the body. These little human body infection patrols protect us from many bacteria and viruses as well as help us acquire immune memory against pathogens for the future. But, that is not all they do.

If used correctly, dendritic cells can play a role in cancer immunotherapy. An article by Caleb Perez and Michelle Palma, discusses the possibilities of using dendritic cell vaccine to fight tumors. Since dendritic cells have the ability to recognize tumor antigens, they are able to activate T-cells that can help destory tumors that have built up in the body. By injecting dendritic cells into the body that have been extracted from patients and ex vivo (out of body) manipulated, tumors should be able to be fought off. However, the results haven’t been as promising as the scientific data shows.

Currently, researchers are working to establish further investigation into specific types of dendritic cells in order to further the power of the DCs and their efficacy in destroying tumors. According to the Journal of Immunology Research by Hindawi, more effective studies have been produced to show that DCs are highly affective in treating cancers such as melanoma, prostate, and even lung cancer.

In these studies, 60% of treated patients showed immunological responses which correlated positively with improved survival.

Journal of Immunology Research by Hindawi

Specifically, ovarian cancer is being treated by using immunotherapy and dendritic cell vaccines. Ovarian epithelial carcinoma has shown to be a very immunogenic tumor which therefore gives room for dendritic therapy to work. The researchers found that the specific type of extraction deemed “heat shock-conditioned cell lysate-loaded DCs” is very effective in ovarian cancer patients, and can be the future of treatment for other cancers as well. The antibody used in the immunotherapy is called: Bevacizumab (Avastin®). It is a monoclonal antibody that targets the VEGF/VEGFR pathway and inhibits tumor blood vessel growth; approved for subsets of patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

But the cost “We’re talking about treatments that cost over $100,000 per year,” said Dr. David Chan, program director for oncology at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in California in a healthline report. “Combine drugs and it’s over $200,000 per year.” This is honestly a huge barrier to treating ovarian cancer as well as any other cancer with immunotherapy–people cannot afford it.