Development and Clinical Evaluation of Dendritic Cell Vaccines or HPV Related Cervical Cancer - a Feasibility Study

Human papillomavirus infection (HPV) and HPV related immune perturbation play important roles in thedevelopment of cervical cancer. Since mature dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells (APC),they could be primed by HPV antigens against cervical cancers. In this study we were able to generate, maintainand characterize, both phenotypically and functionally, patient specific dendritic cells in vitro. A randomizedPhase I trial with three arms - saline control (arm I), unprimed mature DC (arm II) and autologous tumor lysateprimed mature DC (arm III) and fourteen patients was conducted. According to WHO criteria, grade 0 or gradeone toxicity was observed in three patients. One patient who received tumor lysate primed dendritic cells andlater cis-platin chemotherapy showed a complete clinical response of her large metastatic disease and remaineddisease free for more than 72 months. Our findings indicate that DC vaccines hold promise as adjuvant sforcervical cancer treatment and further studies to improve their efficacy need to be conducted.