Targeted cancer treatment through Dendritic Cell Therapy – The forefront of Immunotherapy

Summary

Dendritic Cell Therapy is a form of immunotherapy that is natural and uses a process that already exists in the human body, which is the immune system. Dendritic Cell (DCs) vaccines are injected into the patients body to boost long-life anti-tumor immunity. It has no negative side effects and can be combined with other treatments. Finally the therapy’s effectiveness in reducing tumour mass has been proven in many years of clinical trials.

Introduction

Dendritic Cell Therapy is a promising form of Immunotherapy that is centered upon modulating dendritic cells (DCs) and creating vaccines that further boost the long-life antitumor immunity. Their safety and effectiveness in reducing tumour mass have been proven in many years of clinical trials.

How Dendritic Cell Therapy was born

Cancer is a disease caused when tumour cells secrete cytokines that suppress the immune system response from our body, leaving it unfit to detect and fight off the disease. Traditional cancer treatment options commonly used to defeat the disease include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. These treatments involve intense and invasive strategies to remove or kill cancerous cells, while also destroying all types of healthy blood cells and limiting the body’s ability of producing new ones. While this has been a commonly used route of treatment, the future of cancer treatment lies in cell-based immunotherapy, which is a non-invasive and practically side effect free treatment option with favorable results when it comes to reducing or eliminating almost all types of cancer. It is named Dendritic Cell Therapy (DCT), a Nobel Prize-winning treatment discovered by Dr. Ralph Steinman, indeed his discovery of dendritic cells (DCs) dates back to 1973.

What is dendritic cell therapy and how is it being used to combat cancer?

Dendritic cells (DCs) are bone marrow-derived leucocytes found in organs or migrating between lymphoid and non-lymphoid organs. Their ability to link the innate (initial) and adaptive (secondary) immune systems makes them an invaluable tool in the fight against cancer. In other words, they effectively transmit messages to the immune system to initiate the process of eradicating any threat detected, including tumour cells. In fact, according to a recent study, dendritic cells (DCs) are “the most important and critical part of stimulating antitumor immunity.1

At Immucura Med, a company that offers DCT to cancer patients in their partner clinics in Europe, the treatment is carried out in the following way: 200 mg of blood is drawn and then, in a lab, filtered and processed to become dendritic cells. These cells are then introduced to specific cancer antigens that the patient needs and via injection reintroduced back into the patient’s body. Once there, the body’s natural immune system takes over, using the elevated number of dendritic cells to activate a high number of cancer-killing cytotoxic T-cells.

Dendritic Cell Vaccines

During the past decade, cellular vaccines that are based on DCs have been developed and extensively tested. DCs are derived from the peripheral blood of cancer patients, pulsed with tumor-associated antigen, activated with an adjuvant and then reinjected into the patient to boost T cell reactivity. They then act as an effective defense against tumor cells, in addition, a reverse of tumor growth is achieved by using the increased infiltration of myeloid-derived suppressor cells to inhibit their ability to block the immune system within the tumor microenvironment (TME).2

Why should a patient choose Dendritic Cell Therapy?

The facts are friendly, they speak for themselves and indicate significantly better outcomes than leaving it to the traditional solutions. Dendritic cell therapy is an obvious choice in the fight against cancer because, to quote Henry Ford; “if you always do what you always did you will always get what you always got”.

DCT adopts the method of stimulating a patient’s known natural immune system response to eradicate cancer cells faster and more effectively than it could do on its own. Important factors, like the location of the cancer, the patient’s underlying medical conditions and previous treatments, affect the immune system’s ability to create dendritic cells.3 But because DCT uses a patient’s own dendritic cells and patient-specific cancer antigens, every dendritic cell therapy treatment is precisely customized, allowing doctors to carefully target the location, the type, and stage of the patient’s cancer. Using the patient’s own cells, DCT treatments are never rejected, and side effects are almost non-existent.

Dendritic cell therapy can be safely and effectively used on its own or in combination with other cancer treatments.

The treatment is offered at Immucura Med SL, headquartered in Spain with additional points located in Gibraltar, Germany and the United Kingdom. If you have questions on the treatment or you are interested in speaking to one of our representative, please send an email to info@immucura.com.

How does the DCT treatment process work? Read more here >
Immucura identifier : BGI21-00X

References:

1. “Immunotherapy: past, present and future”, T.A. Waldmann, , Nat. Med. 9, published in 2003, page 269.
2. “Clinical use of dendritic cells for cancer therapy “ by S. Anguille, The lancet oncology, published in 2014, pages 257–e267.
3. “Restoring immunosurveillance by dendritic cell vaccines and manipulation of the tumor microenvironment “, by A. Vasaturo, Immunobiology, published in 2015, pages 243–248.