Eight HCC patients were treated with PEI or RFTA and serially analyzed for 4 weeks. Plasmocytoid (PDC) and myeloid dendritic cells (MDC) were analyzed directly ex vivo and in vitro using FACS and proliferation assays.
HCC ablation induced a functional transient activation of MDC but not of PDC associated with increased serum levels of TNF-α and IL-1β.
These findings suggest that the combination of PEI or RFTA and active antigen specific immunotherapeutic approaches using DCs is a promising approach for the induction of sustained antitumoral immune responses aiming at the reduction of tumor recurrence and metastases in HCC patients.