New Strategies for Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines

Background: Patients with low response rates to cancer vaccines, short duration of anti-tumor response after vaccination, and relatively weak curative effects are problems that have not been resolved effectively during the development and application of cancer vaccines. With the continuous improvement of knowledge and awareness regarding the immune system and cancer cells, many researches have helped to explain the reasons for poor vaccine efficacy. Input from researchers accompanied by some newly emerged strategies could bring hope to improve the therapeutic effects of vaccines. Methods: Data were collected from Web of Science, Medline, Pubmed, through searching of these keywords: cancer vaccine, cancer stem cell, targeted agent, immune checkpoint blockade and neoantigen. Results: It may be more effective in immunotherapy of human cancers, including cancer stem cell vaccines, combination vaccines with targeted agents or immune checkpoint blockade, and neoantigen-based vaccines. Conclusion: Personalized vaccines will become the mainstream solution of cancer treatment program with the continuous improvement of human understanding of the immune system and the progress of related experiments.