Training the immune system to fight gynecological cancer

The thesis looks at ways to make the immune system attack gynecological cancers more effectively. In metastatic endometrial cancer, combining chemotherapy with dendritic cell therapy was safe and produced anti-tumor immune responses. Work on ovarian cancer found that particular immune cell populations in the abdominal cavity are linked to the chance of recurrence. The thesis also presents a new clinical trial of dendritic cell therapy for advanced ovarian cancer, in which immune cells taken from the patient are prepared to detect features unique to that patient's tumor. The results support further development of personalized immunotherapy for ovarian and endometrial cancer, where current options are often not effective enough.