Immunotherapy for prostate cancer using prostatic acid phosphatase loaded antigen presenting cells

Dendritic cells from patients with cancer are deficient in number and functional activity, leading to inadequate tumor immunosurveillance as a result of poor induction of T-cell antitumor responses. Loaded dendritic cell therapy is a vaccination strategy aimed at eliciting tumor antigen-specific, T-cell immune responses. Loaded dendritic cell therapy using prostatic acid phosphatase (APC8015; Provenge®, Dendreon Corp., Seattle, WA) as an immunogen has shown a survival benefit in patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer in a randomized phase III trial. This review will summarize the prostate cancer clinical trials using APC8015 and discuss the potential future role of APC8015 in prostate cancer treatment.