Dendritic cells, T-cells and their possible role in the treatment of leukaemia and lymphoma

The immune system has the ability to control and destroy malignant calls. This has been demonstrated by the graft versus leukaemia effect and the use of donor lymphocyte infusions in peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Dendritic cells are potent antigen presenting cells and become activated after phagocytosing and processing antigen. During this process they up-regulate MHC, co-stimulatory and adhesion molecules and have the ability to stimulate naïve T-cells. Recent evidence has shown that dendritic cells can be loaded with tumour specific antigens and can be used to generate specific anti-tumour T-cell responses. Initial clinical studies using this technology have been promising and suggest that dendritic cells and T-lymphocytes can be utilised in developing therapies which target specific malignant clones.