Effects of Androgen Ablation on Anti-Tumor Immunity
Abstract
Androgen Ablation (AA) constitutes the most common therapy for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. While initially effective at reducing tumor burden, most patients recur with androgen insensitive disease. AA affects the immune system both systemically as well as at the prostate. Androgens have immunosuppressive effects and it is therefore of interest to investigate if immunotherapy can benefit from androgen ablation when immunosuppression is reduced. AA results in infiltration of activated T cells, dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages into the prostate. DCs are the only antigen-presenting cells that can activate naive T cells to a novel antigen and are the key players of successful vaccination regimes. Many DC-directed prostate cancer immunotherapy strategies are in clinical trials but there is little information with regards to the effects of androgen ablation on DC function. We have set forth to investigate the effects of androgen ablation on DC costimulation. The ultimate goal of studying the effects of AA on the immune system is to determine if a prostate-directed immunotherapy strategy can benefit from androgen ablation and we have directly tested this in an antigen-specific manner using a prostate-specific antigen, six transmembrane epithelial antigen of the prostate (STEAP).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA462669
Entities
People
- W. M. Kast
Organizations
- University of Southern California