Photodynamic therapy-mediated DC immunotherapy is highly effective for the inhibition of established solid tumors.

Dendritic cell (DC)-mediated immunotherapy has not been as effective as expected for most solid tumors. This study demonstrates immune responses against solid tumors mediated by DCs charged with photodynamic therapy (PDT)-induced tumor lysates, which contain the heat shock protein (HSP) 70. PDT tumor lysate-pulsed DC (PDT-DC) inhibited the growth of mammary EMT6 tumors to a greater extent than freeze/thawed tumor lysate-pulsed DC (FT-DC) or PDT tumor lysates. PDT-DC also showed significant anti-tumor effects against fully-established (i.e., late-stage) solid tumors. Taken together, these results suggest that PDT-DC vaccination is more effective than conventional DC therapy for the treatment of cancers.