Abstract
Immune suppression remains a consistent obstacle to successful anti-tumor immune responses. As tumors develop, they create a microenvironment that not only supports tumor growth and metastasis but also reduces potential adaptive immunity to tumor antigens. Among the many components of this tumor microenvironment is a population of dendritic cells which exert profound immune suppressive effects on T cells. In this review, we discuss our recent findings related to these tumor-associated dendritic cells and how targeting them may serve to generate more durable anti-tumor immune responses.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this review was supported in part by the intramural research programs of the NCI, NIH. The authors appreciate the critical review of Dr. Joost Oppenheim.
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The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.
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This paper is a Focussed Research Review based on a presentation given at the Second International Conference on Cancer Immunotherapy and Immunomonitoring (CITIM 2011), held in Budapest, Hungary, 2nd–5th May 2011. It is part of a CII series of Focussed Research Reviews and meeting report.
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Hurwitz, A.A., Watkins, S.K. Immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment: a role for dendritic cell-mediated tolerization of T cells. Cancer Immunol Immunother 61, 289–293 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-011-1181-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-011-1181-5