AUTHOR=Castiello Luciano , Aricò Eleonora , D'Agostino Giuseppina , Santodonato Laura , Belardelli Filippo 

TITLE=In situ Vaccination by Direct Dendritic Cell Inoculation: The Coming of Age of an Old Idea?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02303

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2019.02303

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p>For more than 25 years, dendritic cell (DC) based vaccination has flashily held promises to represent a therapeutic approach for cancer treatment. While the vast majority of studies has focused on the use of antigen loaded DC, the intratumoral delivery of unloaded DC aiming at <italic>in situ</italic> vaccination has gained much less attention. Such approach grounds on the ability of inoculated DC to internalize and process antigens directly released by tumor (usually in combination with cell-death-inducing agents) to activate broad patient-specific antitumor T cell response. In this review, we highlight the recent studies in both solid and hematological tumors showing promising clinical results and discuss the main pitfalls and advantages of this approach for endogenous cancer vaccination. Lastly, we discuss how <italic>in situ</italic> vaccination by DC inoculation may fit with current immunotherapy approaches to expand and prolong patient response.</p>