Institut for Tumortherapy, Duderstadt, Germany

my experience going through Cancer therapy with unloaded monocyte-derived dendritic cells

some info on how / what the procedure is, this text is taken from a previous study, which inspired me to take this route of treatment:

Background: Several studies could show that immunotherapy with monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDC) loaded with tumor-cell-lysate or known peptides induce clinical antitumor response in certain patients with various types of solid tumors. Given that tumor proteins in the serum of cancer patients may be sufficient to internalize and presented by immature dendritic cells, we investigated whether immature dendritic cells incubated with the serum of cancer patients could induce an antitumor response in vivo. Methods: After isolating monocytes from peripheral blood of patients with pancreatic (n=17) and gall bladder cancer (n=6), dendritic cells were generated ex vivo in the presence of recombinant cytokines (IL-4;GMC-SF) and autologous serum. After 7 days of culture, the autologous MoDC were administered to the cancer patients (intradermal or intratumoral). Results: Flow cytometric analysis of the surface markers revealed that the generated MoDC were of immature type with expression of CD1a and MHC-II but not monocyte specific marker CD14. The generated MoDC could induce an antigen specific lymphocyte proliferation in vitro. Using a phagocytosis assay it could be demonstrated by flow cytometry and electron microscopy that immature dendritic cells are in general able to phagocytose different sized particles. The vaccination induced a clinical response in n=5 patients with pancreatic cancer including 2 stable diseases, 2 minor remissions and 1 mixed response (overall survival 4–32 months; 2 patients died of their disease after 10 and 21 months, respectively) as well as in n=1 patient with gall bladder cancer (stable disease after 18 months using intratumoral administration). A biopsy taken from the patient with the gall bladder cancer within the treatment period demonstrated unusually low proliferative activity. Conclusions: The results suggest that immature dendritic cells could be loaded by soluble tumor antigens in the serum of cancer patients as well as able to uptake tumor antigens in vivo.