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CancerQuest > Introduction to Patient Information > An Introduction to Cancer Treatments > An Introduction to Tumor Vaccines > An Overview of Tumor Vaccine Strategies

An Overview of Tumor Vaccine Strategies

The aim of tumor vaccines is to stimulate the body's immune system in the fight to recognize and eliminate cancer cells. There are many strategies in immunotherapy; some strategies are considered 'passive' while others are 'active'.

• Passive immunotherapy involves giving antibodies or mature T cells to the patient to attack the cancer cells.⁽¹⁾ This type of therapy does not induce permanent change in the patient's own T cells, but may be effective in a variety of cancers including leukemia and breast cancer. One of the most widely used cellular immunotherapy strategy is the transfer of immune cells from a healthy donor to a recipient who has had a bone marrow transplant or other stem cell transplant.
• Active immunotherapy strategies include tumor vaccines, because they directly stimulate the patient's own immune cells to have a long-lasting response against the cancer.⁽¹⁾ All of these strategies aim to stimulate the antigen presenting cells (APCs) and T cells in some way.

There are several broad categories of tumor vaccine strategies⁽²⁾ :

• Whole cell vaccines- Whole cell vaccines target the APCs inside the body (in vivo) so that they take up and present the tumor antigens to T cells. These vaccines use modified tumor cells.
• Antigen therapy vaccines- Like whole cell vaccines, antigen therapy vaccines target the APCs inside the body (in vivo) so that they take up and present the tumor antigens to T cells. These vaccines use purified parts of the tumor cells (tumor antigens).
• Antigen-presenting cell vaccines- Antigen-presenting cell vaccines involve the injection modified antigen presenting cells (APC), prepared in the laboratory (ex vivo), into a patient, where they will also stimulate the T cells.⁽³⁾
• Non-specific therapy and cytokine therapy- Cytokine therapy involves the administration of immune signaling molecules (usually proteins) that increase the maturation and growth of APCs and T cells. A description of some approved agents of this type can also be found in the Biological Response Modifier (BRM) portion of the section on treatments.

References for this page:

1. Biagi E, Rousseau RF, Yvon E, Vigouroux S, Dotti G and Brenner MK. "Cancer vaccines: dream, reality or nightmare?" Clinical Experimental Medicine. (2002) 2:109-118 [PUBMED]
2. Antoni Ribas, Lisa H. Butterfield, John A. Glapsy and James S. Economou. "Current developments in cancer vaccines and cellular immunotherapy." Journal of Clinical Oncology. (2003) 21(12): 2415-2432. [PUBMED]
3. "Treating Cancer with Vaccine Therapy." National Cancer Institute. [http://www.nci.nih.gov/clinicaltrials/understanding/treating-cancer-with-vaccine-therapy]