Can leukemia-derived dendritic cells generate antileukemia immunity?

Tumor vaccines are being explored as a means of generating antitumor immune responses in patients with cancer. Based on the efficacy of allogeneic transplantation, acute myelogenous leukemia appears to be susceptible to cellular immune-based therapy. Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent antigen-presenting cells and, as such, are being studied as a platform for the design of cancer vaccines. In acute leukemia, a promising approach involves the generation of DCs from leukemic blasts via cytokine exposure ex vivo. Leukemia-derived DCs potentially retain the tumor-associated antigens of the leukemic clone, which are presented in the context of the immune stimulating machinery of the mature DC. However, the efficacy of this approach may be limited by intrinsic abnormalities in the malignant clone that prevent differentiation towards a normal DC phenotype.