Definition

A cancer vaccine consisting of lymphocytes harvested from a patient with lung cancer and induced to become antigen-presenting cells (APCs) known as dendritic cells. The dendritic cells are transduced with the gene encoding an antigen specific to the patient’s cancer and then returned to the patient. In the host, the altered cells stimulate the immune system to mount a primary T cell response against lung tumor cells expressing the target antigen. Dendritic cell-autologous lung tumor vaccines have been investigated for use in cancer immunotherapy.