Strategies for cancer vaccine development.
Treating cancer with vaccines has been a challenging field of investigation since the 1950s. Over the years, the lack of effective active immunotherapies has led to the development of numerous novel strategies. However, the use of therapeutic cancer vaccines may be on the verge of becoming an effective modality. Recent phase II/III clinical trials have achieved hopeful results in terms of overall survival. Yet despite these encouraging successes, in general, very little is known about the basic immunological mechanisms involved in vaccine immunotherapy. Gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms that govern the specific immune responses (i.e., cytotoxic T lymphocytes, CD4 T helper cells, T regulatory cells, cells of innate immunity, tumor escape mechanisms) elicited by each of the various vaccine platforms should be a concern of cancer vaccine clinical trials, along with clinical benefits. This review focuses on current strategies employed by recent clinical trials of therapeutic cancer vaccines and analyzes them both clinically and immunologically.
Vergati
Matteo
M
Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Intrivici
Chiara
C
Huen
Ngar-Yee
NY
Schlom
Jeffrey
J
Tsang
Kwong Y
KY
D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans
D019496:Cancer Vaccines