The Promise of Preventive Cancer Vaccines.
Years of unsuccessful attempts at fighting established tumors with vaccines have taught us all that they are only able to truly impact patient survival when used in a preventive setting, as would normally be the case for traditional vaccines against infectious diseases. While true primary cancer prevention is still but a long-term goal, secondary and tertiary prevention are already in the clinic and providing encouraging results. A combination of immunopreventive cancer strategies and recently approved checkpoint inhibitors is a further promise of forthcoming successful cancer disease control, but prevention will require a considerable reduction of currently reported toxicities. These considerations summed with the increased understanding of tumor antigens allow space for an optimistic view of the future.
Department of Experimental Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, Viale Filopanti 22, Bologna 40126, Italy. pierluigi.lollini@unibo.it.
Pier-Luigi
PL
Lollini
Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Torino, Via Nizza 52, Torino 10126, Italy. federica.cavallo@unito.it.
Federica
F
Cavallo
Department of Experimental Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, Viale Filopanti 22, Bologna 40126, Italy. patrizia.nannni@unibo.it.
Patrizia
P
Nanni
Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Torino, Via Nizza 52, Torino 10126, Italy. elena.quaglino@unito.it.
Elena
E
Quaglino
Her2; cancer immunoprevention; cancer immunotherapy; cancer vaccines; immune checkpoint inhibitors