Abstract
Prostate cancer is among the most common types of cancer disease in men. If there is a relapse of the disease after primary radical therapy or the disease is diagnosed in an advanced stage, therapeutic options are limited.
Given this, immunotherapy appears to be another promising treatment modality. The development of cancer disease is a multistage process of a complex nature wherein the tumour cells themselves represent a very heterogeneous population put into the context of a microenvironment of non-tumour cells and tissues forming a complex tumour "ecosystem".
The immune system is capable of controlling tumour cell growth in early stages of tumour development. With advanced tumour growth, immune mechanisms become more or less paralysed and, in fact, frequently have a promoting effect on tumour cell proliferation.
In order to be successful, anticancer therapy must take into consideration all the complex aspects of interaction of the immune system and tumour cells, including the microenvironment. The article deals with dendritic cell-based tumour vaccines that are tested in patients with various stages of prostate cancer as immunotherapy in combination with other treatment modalities.