Increase of in vivo antitumoral activity by CD40L (CD154) gene transfer into pancreatic tumor cell-dendritic cell hybrids.

Objectives: Fusion of dendritic cells (DC) with tumor cells is an approach in immunotherapy combining antigenicity and capacity of antigen presentation to activate T cells for the induction of tumor-specific cytotoxic immunity. Although there have been reports of clinical benefit, response rates have been limited and further improvements are warranted.

Methods: We used murine DC and a novel protocol for an effective fusion of those cells with the murine pancreatic cell line Panc02.