Dendritic Cell Therapy as Treatment for Breast Cancer

I am fascinated by this week’s blog topic because dendritic cells and T cells do amazing things in our bodies, and I never knew exactly what was happening in my body until taking this class. The first article I found was published in the journal, Oncology Reports, earlier this year and it discusses the combination of dendritic cells and cytotoxic T-cells as therapy treatments for patients with breast cancer. This study used dendritic cells and activated antigen specific T-cells that were isolated from the blood of breast cancer patients. The cells were treated with IL-12 and IL-18 and the researchers used a lysate of tumor tissue for the antigen. The study found that the use of these autologous dendritic cells helped anti-tumor responses, increased memory cells that reduced relapse and spread of new tumors, and that this type of therapy is not harmful to the participants. There were very minimal side effects associated with this therapy but there were some instances of flu-like symptoms such as fever and fatigue but they quickly went away and were not severe. 

The other article I found was published in January of this year and it took a different approach to using dendritic cells for breast cancer therapy. This study explores the influence of dendritic cells pulsed with breast cancer stem cell (CSCs) antigens to then activate effector lymphocytes to kill breast cancer cells. This was done using the RNA of the CSCs and the researchers targeted the CSCs because they play a role in the resistance to treatment in breast cancer cells. The study found that the dendritic cells pulsed with CSC RNA activated cytotoxic T cells, helper T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and natural killer T (NKT) cells. These activated cells also killed more cancer cells that dendritic cells that were not treated with CSC RNA. This study also did not address any bad side effects and emphasized that this therapy has the potential to improve the lives of those with breast cancer.

The cost of the dendritic cell therapy is not directly addressed in these articles because these research projects are funded, but it can be expensive to receive any type of treatment over a long period of time. Until these types of therapy are more well known and accessible will people be able to afford them regularly. These articles are truly some good news in light of everything that is happening in the world with COVID-19. Reading about these new types of therapy is so interesting and it creates hope for the future. It also makes me think about how research has been stopped because of Coronavirus and it makes me wonder how it will influence researchers and their progress on life saving treatments such as these.