Fig. 1

The afferent and efferent arms of adaptive tumor immunity. Tumor cells undergo apoptosis or necrosis, either spontaneously or after radio- or chemotherapy. Apoptotic bodies from tumor cells can be processed by dendritic cells. The antigen repertoire of dying cells is subsequently presented by dendritic cells via MHC molecules to T cells (the afferent arm of adaptive immune activation). T cells recognizing peptides by their T cell receptor (TCR) are activated and acquire cytolytic effector functions