Cancer vaccine development: Designing tumor cells for greater immunogenicity

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

Cancer vaccine development is one of the most hopeful and exhilarating areas in cancer research. For this reason, there has been a growing interest in the development and application of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer with the focus being on stimulating the immune system to target tumor cells specifically while leaving normal cells unharmed. From such research has emerged a host of promising immunotherapies such as dendritic cell-based vaccines, cytokine therapies and gene transfer technology. These therapies seek to counteract the poor immunogenicity of tumors by augmenting the host's immune system with a variety of immunostimulatory proteins such as cytokines and costimulatory molecules. While such therapies have proven effective in the induction of anti-tumor immunity in animal models, they are less than optimal and pose a high risk of clinical infeasibility. Herein, we further discuss these immunotherapies as well as a feasible and efficient alternative that, in pre-clinical animal models, allows for the expression of specific immunostimulatory molecules on the surface of tumor cells by a novel protein transfer technology.

Publication Title

Frontiers in Bioscience

Volume

15

Issue

1

First Page

309

Last Page

320

Comments

This article was published in Frontiers in Bioscience, Volume 15, Issue 1, Pages 309-320.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/3622.

Copyright © 2010 Frontiers in Bioscience.

This document is currently not available here.

COinS