biomedicines Review Cancer Vaccines in Ovarian Cancer: How Can We Improve? Silvia Martin Lluesma 1, Anita Wolfer 2, Alexandre Harari 1 and Lana E. Kandalaft 1,3,* 1 Center of Experimental Therapeutics, Ludwig Center for Cancer Res, Department of Oncology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1011, Switzerland;
[email protected] (S.M.L.);
[email protected] (A.H.) 2 Department of Oncology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1011, Switzerland;
[email protected] 3 Ovarian Cancer Research Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +41-(0)21-314-7823 Academic Editor: Ghaith Bakdash Received: 21 March 2016; Accepted: 19 April 2016; Published: 3 May 2016 Abstract: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one important cause of gynecologic cancer-related death. Currently, the mainstay of ovarian cancer treatment consists of cytoreductive surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy (introduced 30 years ago) but, as the disease is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, its prognosis remains very poor. Clearly, there is a critical need for new treatment options, and immunotherapy is one attractive alternative. Prophylactic vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases have led to major achievements, yet therapeutic cancer vaccines have shown consistently low efficacy in the past. However, as they are associated with minimal side effects or invasive procedures, efforts directed to improve their efficacy are being deployed, with Dendritic Cell (DC) vaccination strategies standing as one of the more promising options. On the other hand, recent advances in our understanding of immunological mechanisms have led to the development of successful strategies for the treatment of different cancers, such as immune checkpoint blockade strategies.