Abstract
To summarize the past attempts to apply immunology to cancer therapy, we can safely say that they have contributed little to the understanding of a cancer-specific antigen, and that there is no proof that they have ever influenced the course of cancer in any patient. The fact that these past attempts have been disappointing, should not discourage scientists from continuing their search for a cancer-specific antigen and its application to both therapy and prophylaxis. The works of Rapport and Graf [10], Nairn et al. [42] strongly suggest the presence of cancer-specific antigens. It is with this assumption that we believe that an effective therapeutic tumor vaccine will soon evolve out of the mass of research devoted to this subject. The evidence that the host responds to its own tumor antigen has been adequately shown [28–31]. Assuming that a specific cancer antigen is isolated, it is not too farfetched to speculate that a prophylactic vaccine similar to smallpox or poliomyelitis will alter the course of neoplastic disease.
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