The process of making a dendritic cell vaccine is complex and involves taking both tumour cells and blood from the patient. Immune cells are separated from the patient’s blood and exposed to the tumour cells – it is through this process that dendritic cells learn to recognise the specific markers and proteins associated with the patient’s tumour cells. The “educated” dendritic cells are then injected back into the patient where they go on to recruit and “teach” other immune cells to recognise and attack the cancerous cells.