A critical review on cancer vaccines: a promising immunotherapy

Abstract

Cancer vaccines are a type of immunotherapy that can assist in educating the immune system about what cancer cells "look like" so that it can practively destroy them. A lack of an efficient adjuvant and insufficient efficacy hurdles the development of cancer vaccines based on tumor-associated antigens. To improve the efficacy of vaccines, a genetically engineered method was reviewed to achieving the codelivery of antigen and adjuvant to enhance immune responses. For more than 25 years, the development of cancer vaccines has been at the forefront of cancer research. The main emphasis has been on delivery strategies used to promote strong and long-lasting immune responses. Recent developments have made it possible to advance the engineering of therapeutic cancer vaccines. Target selection, vaccine development and techniques for overturning immunosuppressive systems used by malignancies have all made significant strides. To accelerate future developments and provide guidance to the prospective participants in this field, this commentary-style review provides an overview of recent developments in therapeutic, HPV and DNA cancer vaccines especially focusing on modeling and simulation advances to date.