Cellular Cancer Vaccines: an Update on the Development of Vaccines Generated from Cell Surface Antigens

A recent advance in anti-cancer therapies has been the use of cancer cells to develop vaccines. However, immunization with cancer cell-based vaccines has not resulted in significant long-term therapeutic benefits. A possible reason for this is that while cancer cells provide surface antigens that are targets for a desired immune response, they also contain a high abundance of housekeeping proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, and other intracellular contents that are ubiquitous in all mammalian cells. These ubiquitous molecules are not the intended targets of this therapy approach, and thus, the immune response generated is not sufficient to eliminate the cancer cells present. In this review, a discussion of the cell surface of cancer cells is presented in relation to the goals of improving antigen composition of cancer cell-based vaccines. Strategies to enrich vaccines for cancer-specific antigens are also discussed.