Fig. 8.

Percent survival of mice after surgical excision of MC-C tumors measuring 2,500 mm³. Death of mice (if occurred) was associated with local tumor recurrences. The figure shows the percentage of the survivors of the different groups (ordinate) as a function of the days after surgery (abscissa). Control (n = 11): tumor-excised mice without additional treatment. DX (n = 10): mice receiving dexamethasone (DX) 3 days before surgery. DC (n = 6): mice receiving dendritic cells loaded with MC-C tumor lysate (DC) 2 days after surgery. DX + DC (n = 8): mice receiving DX and DC, 3 days before and 2 days after surgery, respectively. Comparison of DX + DC versus control and DC, P < 0.01; versus DX, P < 0.05. The mice displaying no-recurrence which had received the two-step immunotherapeutic protocol (DX + DC, n = 4 of 8) or none (control, n = 1 of 11) remained disease-free until day 180 after surgery, when the study was terminated