Immune adjuvants aimed at initiating or re-activating host immunity against poorly immunogenic cancers represent a potential tool for immunotherapy. By employing the natural killer T (NKT) cell agonist α-galactosylceramide in a whole tumor cell therapeutic vaccine approach, we have achieved potent suppression of established hematological cancers upon the elicitation of innate and adaptive antitumor immunity.
Keywords: NKT cells; hematological malignancies; immune adjuvants; immunotherapy; tumor vaccine; α-galactosylceramide.