Dendritic-cell vaccines on the move

Vaccines that induce an antitumour immune response are disappointingly ineffective in treating patients with cancer. Pre-conditioning the vaccination site to induce inflammation might provide a way to improve this therapy. See Letter p.366 John Sampson and colleagues report on a small clinical trial in glioblastoma patients that shows that the immune and anti-tumour response to dendritic cell vaccination is increased by pre-conditioning the site of vaccination with tetanus/diptheria toxoid (Td). Experiments in mice showed similar effects and demonstrated that pre-conditioning with Td enhanced migration of dendritic cells to the tumours, at least in part due to the action of the cytokine CCL3. Although the clinical trial reported is small, these findings may pave the way for new ways of improving the efficacy of anti-cancer vaccines.