Page 97 - Bio Engineering Approaches to Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

4.6 Cancer vaccine 95

FIGURE 4.12 Schematic of cancer vaccine function or release of tumor cell antigen as a
result of cancer cell death.

advanced. Moreover, immunotherapy has seen tremendous growth by demonstrating
that T cells can show tumor suppression and antitumor activity. Tumor cells typically
express mutated proteins or normal proteins in a higher rate which cause them to be
recognized by CTLs (cytotoxic T lymphocytes) [71].
Schematic of cancer vaccine function (or release of tumor antigens as a result of
tumor cell death) are shown in Fig. 4.12. Firstly, APCs (DCs, neutrophils, lymphatic
endothelial cells, and macrophages) must recognize the antigen, then the T cells need
to be activated by APCs, and in the last stage activated T helpers as well as T cyto-
toxic must move to the tumor site and change the immunosuppressive microenviron-
ment to an inflammatory condition. This alteration in the tumor microenvironment
helps the cytotoxic T cells to fight against T cells [70].
First, by vaccine administration or tumor antigen release APCs recognize tumor
antigens and represent them on their surface, then they migrate into Lymph node and
cause T cells differentiation and proliferation. Afterwards, mature T cells go through