Re: prostate cancer and cell vaccines

The cell vaccine you are referring to is minimally effective. The issue is you first have to train dendritic cells to recognize the cancer. Even if dendritic cells can see through histocompatability molecules and find an antigen to copy, even if they can then transfer that code to killer lymphocytes, tagging of antigen is bypassed and trained killers simply don't know where to go and find this antigen.

Thus, cell vaccines demonstrate short term results especially as adjuncts to other therapies. Some of the most successful vaccines occurred after they gave chemotherapy. This means that chemo compound injured the cancer so much that it could not metabolically manufacture histocompatability molecules. During this short time that chemo injured the tumor, dendrite, (memory cells,) were re-injected and spontanious tumor lysis occurred. Not many people however, want to do immune therapies after chemo, it seems backwards to some people as chemo usually impairs the immune system.

Also, dendridic cell vaccines have been around for over a decade and not much has become of this treatment. Tweet