New Vaccine Therapy Shows Promise in Treating Cancer
By: Katherine Ardila
April 26, 2024
A vaccine against cancer is a therapeutic strategy that stimulates the immune system to recognize and attack specific cancer cells in the body. Unlike preventive vaccines for infectious diseases, cancer vaccines are designed to treat existing cancers in patients.
These vaccines work by exposing the immune system to specific tumor antigens, which are markers present on cancer cells. This activation of immune cells, such as T lymphocytes, helps to selectively target and eliminate tumor cells.
Recent advances in understanding the immune system and cancer biology have led to significant progress in the development of cancer vaccines. These vaccines offer a promising therapeutic tool that could be combined with other treatments to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
The challenge with cancer vaccines lies in convincing the immune system to target cancer cells, which are part of the body itself and are not recognized as foreign invaders. To overcome this, the vaccines train the immune system to identify and attack cancer cells by presenting tumor-specific antigens to immune cells like T lymphocytes.
Clinical trials at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have tested vaccines against several types of cancer, including glioblastoma, kidney cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia with melanoma, lung cancer, and bladder cancer.
The process of developing personalized cancer vaccines involves identifying neoantigens, abnormal proteins derived from genetic mutations in cancer cells. These neoantigens are unique to each tumor and can be recognized by the immune system as foreign. The vaccines are created based on these specific neoantigens to train the immune system to target cancer cells with those markers.
Administered through injections into the skin over several weeks, personalized cancer vaccines aim to enhance the immune response against cancer cells presenting specific neoantigens. This targeted approach leverages the individual characteristics of each patient’s tumor for more effective and specific treatment.
Immunotherapy as a Complement to Cancer Vaccines
Immunotherapy and cancer vaccines both aim to boost the body’s immune response against cancer cells. While there are various types of immunotherapy, including CAR-T cell therapy and immune checkpoint blockers, they all work towards activating the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
One key difference is that vaccines introduce specific antigens to trigger an immune response, while other forms of immunotherapy focus on enhancing T cell activity or overcoming barriers in the tumor microenvironment.
The combination of personalized cancer vaccines and immunotherapy offers a promising approach for improving cancer treatment and patient outcomes.
Sources: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute