Correspondence 2: Cancer vaccines: pessimism in check

Cancer vaccines.

Attempts to generate an anticancer immune response in vivo in patients with cancer have taken several forms. Although to date there have been relatively few published studies describing the effects of the approach in hematologic malignancy, that circumstance is expected to change rapidly during the next few years. In solid tumors, it is not known which, if any, of the approaches being explored ...

Cancer vaccines

These are exciting times for the field of cancer immunotherapy. Although the clinical efficacy of monoclonal antibodies has been demonstrated since the early 1990s, the therapeutic profile of other immunotherapeutic approaches-especially vaccines-has not yet been formally clarified. However, the recent success of several immunotherapeutic regimens in cancer patients has boosted the development ...

Against Pessimism in Tuberculosis

The ultimate in cancer chemoprevention: cancer vaccines.

This perspective on Beatty et al. (beginning on page 438 in this issue of the journal) discusses the role of the immune system as nature's ultimate chemoprevention agent. A successful immune response to vaccination results in immunologic memory. In the case of a successful cancer-related response, antigen-specific T cells will be poised to destroy an aberrantly expressed protein even if the hos...

Recent developments in cancer vaccines.

The adoptive transfer of cancer Ag-specific effector T cells in patients can result in tumor rejection, thereby illustrating the immune system potential for cancer therapy. Ideally, one would like to directly induce efficient tumor-specific effector and memory T cells through vaccination. Therapeutic vaccines have two objectives: priming Ag-specific T cells and reprogramming memory T cells (i.e...