title: Anti-cancer vaccines - a one-hit wonder?
abstract: Immunization against common bacterial and viral diseases has helped prevent millions of deaths worldwide. More recently, the concept of vaccination has been developed into a potentially novel strategy to treat and prevent cancer formation, progression, and spread. Over the past few years, a handful of anti-cancer vaccines have been licensed and approved for use in clinical practice, thus providing a breakthrough in the field. However, the path has not always been easy, with many hurdles that have had to be overcome in order to reach this point. Nevertheless, with more anti-cancer vaccines currently in development, there is still hope that they can eventually become routine tools used in the treatment and prevention of cancer in the future. This review will discuss in detail both types of anti-cancer vaccine presently used in clinical practice - therapeutic and preventive - before considering some of the more promising anti-cancer vaccines that are currently in development. Finally, the issue of side effects and the debate surrounding the overall cost-effectiveness of anti-cancer vaccines will be examined.
authors.affiliation: Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Justin K H
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000191:economics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines
keywords: anti-cancer vaccines; cancer immunotherapy; personalized therapy; preventive vaccines; therapeutic vaccines