Current Challenges in Cancer Immunotherapy: Multimodal Approaches to Improve Efficacy and Patient Response Rates

Figure 3

Mechanism of Action of Cancer Vaccines. As illustrated, cancer vaccines are administered through an intradermal injection (1) with adjuvants that activate dendritic cells (2). Immature dendritic cells take up the antigen; typically this antigen is uniquely expressed on tumor cells (3) and presents the antigen to CD4 cells (4) and CD8 cells (5). CD8 cells are then activated to seek out the antigen on the surface of tumor cells (6). Abbreviations. CD: a cluster of differentiation and MHC: major histocompatibility complex.