Numerical and functional defects of blood dendritic cells in early- and late-stage breast cancer

Abstract

The generation of antitumour immunity depends on the nature of dendritic cell (DC)-tumour interactions. These have been studied mostly by using in vitro-derived DC which may not reflect the natural biology of DC in vivo. In breast cancer, only one report has compared blood DC at different stages and no longitudinal evaluation has been performed. Here we conducted three cross-sectional and one one-year longitudinal assessments of blood DC in patients with early (stage I/II, n = 137) and advanced (stage IV, n = 36) disease compared to healthy controls (n = 66). Patients with advanced disease exhibit markedly reduced blood DC counts at diagnosis. Patients with early disease show minimally reduc..