Dendritic cells are often called professional antigen presenting cells and are crucial for human immune system. The development of cancer usually causes immunosuppression of dendritic cells. But modification of dendritic cells in ex vivo conditions allows them to keep their function and formation into a vaccine makes their application to a patient easily realisable. Modification of dendritic cells includes loading them with a suitable antigen and fallowed up maturation to further improve their function. Mature dendritic cells need to be formulated into a vaccine. At this stage the site of application, dose volume and the need for an adjuvant need to be considered. The success of maturation depends on numerous factors, including the used dendritic cell subtype, cancer progression, antigen used, the quantity of antigen, adjuvant used, dose volume, vaccination schedule, route of administration and overall patients’ immune condition. There are many approaches to dendritic cell modification, but it is not clear which one results in highest efficiency. The use of modified dendritic cells would ideally result in successful migration to lymph nodes, strong T cell activation and strong and selective immune response against cancer cells. The emergence of memory T cells is also desirable to protect the patient from disease relapse. Currently there are few vaccines based on ex vivo modified dendritic cells approved for use in cancer immunotherapy.
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