Reader’s Digest Version
Not all autologous DCs are created equal. If you or I get cancer in the future, and DCVax-l is made, part of our response will be dependent on the health and cytokine messaging (including danger signals from the tumor lysate) of our own individual DCs. Outside the body, It reaches full maturity while being pulsed with antigens from lysate derived from dead tumor cells. It migrates to the lymph node when injected. It expresses to effector t-cells and they leave to find and eliminate t-cells.
DCVax-Direct is partially matured before any exposure to antigens, and its capacity to pump out certain cytokines can be selected for and/or enhanced. Once in the tumor, the partially matured DC-Direct injected not only uptakes antigens, it also produces and responds to cytokines — killing tumor cells, directing both arms of the immune system, etc. It basically overwhelms the tumor micro-environment (guns blazing) and tells/programs itself (aka DC) this is a full combat zone. It then migrates toward lymph nodes, finishes maturing before it arrives at the lymph nodes and expresses a message to matching t-cells that holy hell has broken out. In this way, it is not compromised by tumor immunosuppressive signaling that tries to say, “nothing to see here, no expanding metastatic tumors here, these are not the droids you are looking for.” Direct, is, as Dr. Bosch states, a bit more aggressive than L. The hyper charged effector t-cells head to the tumor and other locations with only one thing on their mind…. killing tumor cells, wherever they are found.
