In the current study, we found that DCIL-15 was superior to rIL-15 in improving both murine and human DC functions and potentiating therapeutic cancer vaccine efficacy in multiple clinically-relevant transplantable murine tumor models, and, notably, in the genetically engineered BrafV600E/Pten-driven melanoma murine model that recapitulates human disease.31 Here, PTEN is linked to cancer.