Therapeutic Vaccines for Cancer: an Overview of Clinical Trials
REVIEWS Therapeutic vaccines for cancer: an overview of clinical trials Ignacio Melero, Gustav Gaudernack, Winald Gerritsen, Christoph Huber, Giorgio Parmiani, Suzy Scholl, Nicholas Thatcher, John Wagstaff, Christoph Zielinski, Ian Faulkner and Håkan Mellstedt Abstract | The therapeutic potential of host-specific and tumour-specific immune responses is well recognized and, after many years, active immunotherapies directed at inducing or augmenting these responses are entering clinical practice. Antitumour immunization is a complex, multi-component task, and the optimal combinations of antigens, adjuvants, delivery vehicles and routes of administration are not yet identified. Active immunotherapy must also address the immunosuppressive and tolerogenic mechanisms deployed by tumours. This Review provides an overview of new results from clinical studies of therapeutic cancer vaccines directed against tumour-associated antigens and discusses their implications for the use of active immunotherapy. Melero, I. et al. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 11, 509–524 (2014); published online 8 July 2014; doi:10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.111 Centro de Investigación Medica Aplicada (CIMA) Introduction and Clínica Universitaria (CUN), Universidad de Immunotherapies against existing cancers include active, unstable leading to numerous changes in the repertoire Navarra, Spain (I.M.). passive or immunomodulatory strategies. Whereas active of epitopes (so-called neo-antigens) they present, sug- Department of Immunology, immunotherapies increase the ability of the patient’s gesting that, in theory, tumours should be ‘visible’ to The Norwegian Radium own immune system to mount an immune response T lymphocytes. Hospital, Cancer to recognize tumour-associated antigens and eliminate The mechanisms required to mount effective anti Research Institute, University of Oslo, malignant cells, passive immunotherapy involves admin- tumour responses have been reviewed by Mellman and Norway (G.G.).
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