Vaccines Against Different Types of Cancer: Literature Review

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, in 2018, cancer was considered the second leading cause of death in the world, corresponding to 9.6 million deaths. Faced with this situation, some alternatives to combat tumors in some organs were developed, such as immunotherapy involving vaccines. Among the vaccines already developed, Sipuleucel-T (Provenge®) can be mentioned, that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010 for cases of metastatic prostate cancer; prophylactic bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines to human papillomavirus; the nanoparticulate liposomal RNA vaccine, the melanoma FixVac (BNT111); peptide-based vaccines, such as carcinoembryonic antigen, and those that involve antigen-loaded dendritic cells for the treatment of colorectal cancer, as well as colorectal cancer stem cell-based vaccines and, for cases of ovarian cancer, dendritic cell vaccines. In relation to breast cancer, research is aimed at both immunotherapy with dendritic cells pulsed with tumor antigens and vaccines that have a combined therapy of dendritic cells and Natural Killer cells. In general, vaccines promote the induction of helper and cytotoxic cells to thereby eliminate tumor cells. This characteristic of using dendritic cells with tumor antigens already processed and presented on the cell surface allows the questioning about the use of the term “vaccine”, since it does not correspond to conventional vaccines. Thus, the studies carried out in this area of immunotherapy, although complex and expensive, show promise in the treatment of several types of cancer, with great possibilities of positively impacting the lives of all those who suffer from the disease.