Abstract
The development of cancer vaccines has been intensively pursued over the past 50 years with modest success. However, recent advancements in the fields of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and immunology have renewed interest in these immunotherapies and allowed the development of promising cancer vaccine candidates. Numerous clinical trials testing the response evoked by tumour antigens, differing in origin and nature, have shed light on the desirable target characteristics capable of inducing strong tumour-specific non-toxic responses with increased potential to bring clinical benefit to patients. Novel delivery methods, ranging from a patient’s autologous dendritic cells to liposome nanoparticles, have exponentially increased the abundance and exposure of the antigenic payloads. Furthermore, growing knowledge of the mechanisms by which tumours evade the immune response has led to new approaches to reverse these roadblocks and to re-invigorate previously suppressed anti-tumour surveillance. The use of new drugs in combination with antigen-based therapies is highly targeted and may represent the future of cancer vaccines. In this review, we address the main antigens and delivery methods used to develop cancer vaccines, their clinical outcomes, and the new directions that the vaccine immunotherapy field is taking.
Highlights
We are witnessing an inflection point in the field of vaccine development
This article will comprehensively review the array of tumour-specific antigens and delivery methods, and the most relevant clinical trials (Table 1) summarizing what we have learned to date to show how cancer vaccines are becoming a powerful tool to treat cancer in the future
One tumour-associated antigens (TAAs), prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), is the protein antigen overexpressed in prostatic cancer, that is the basis of one of the few therapeutic cancer vaccines approved for clinical use, SipuleucelT [13]
Summary
We are witnessing an inflection point in the field of vaccine development. The benefits that will flow for human health and the global economy following the recent release of. The concept of vaccination has expanded beyond interventions that prevent disease, and towards approaches that target disease-specific antigens to treat or ameliorate ongoing pathology These therapeutic vaccines stem from the realization that in addition to eliciting new immune responses in naïve individuals, vaccines are capable of enhancing pre-existing immunity and modulate its type to better tackle the targeted disease (e.g., systemic vs mucosal; Th1 vs Th2) [3,4]. The past 10 years of cancer treatment and management has dramatically improved with the discovery and adoption of immune checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibodies (ICIs), which in combination with tumour-antigen specific vaccines are being trialled to treat some of the most devastating cancer types, and are currently showing promising results [10]. This article will comprehensively review the array of tumour-specific antigens and delivery methods, and the most relevant clinical trials (Table 1) summarizing what we have learned to date to show how cancer vaccines are becoming a powerful tool to treat cancer in the future
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