Oral cancer treatment and immune targets – A role for dendritic cells?

Abstract 

Treating a patient suffering from an advanced oral cavity carcinoma by peritumoural injections of mistletoe preparation resulted in a surprising partial response. At the same time an early metastasis, located at the kidney, however remained unaffected. The main difference in treatment being peritumoural versus systematic application supports the hypothesis of immune surveillance. The impact of mistletoe extract in direct contact with the tumour tissue might be explained as activation of macrophage polarization followed by induced cytotoxicity. No direct contact is resulting in no direct macrophage activation. At present there is no clinical trial outlined to test this hypothesis, but as a beginning we would like to encourage submission of case reports with similar clinical experience.

Keywords: Advanced oral cavity carcinoma, Peritumoural injections of mistletoe preparation, Activation of macrophage polarization, Partial response to clinical treatment