Cancer vaccine for brain tumors and brain tumor antigens

Although treatment modalities for malignant gliomas have advanced remarkably, the prognosis remains poor. This has led to an intensive search for effective treatment alternatives. Recently, T cells activated by antigens from brain tumors were shown to migrate across the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system (CNS) and selectively attack brain tumors. Then, various vaccination strategies against cancer have been attempted to induce specific immune responses against gliomas in the body outside the CNS. Encouraging results of preclinical studies of cancer vaccines against CNS tumors have led to clinical trials of these vaccines for the treatment of patients with malignant gliomas. In this review, recent progress in the use of cancer vaccines for the treatment of malignant gliomas is described, followed by a description of brain tumor antigens recognized by the immune system.