Internal medicine

Immunotherapy

Cancer vaccine

Cancer immunotherapy

Biology

Cancer

Antigen

Immunology

Computational biology

Clinical trial

Medicine

Immune system

Nature Cancer

After several decades, therapeutic cancer vaccines now show signs of efficacy and potential to help patients resistant to other standard-of-care immunotherapies, but they have yet to realize their full potential and expand the oncologic armamentarium. Here, we classify cancer vaccines by what is known of the included antigens, which tumors express those antigens and where the antigens colocalize with antigen-presenting cells, thus delineating predefined vaccines (shared or personalized) and anonymous vaccines (ex vivo or in situ). To expedite clinical development, we highlight the need for accurate immune monitoring of early trials to acknowledge failures and advance the most promising vaccines. Brody and colleagues discuss the current status and potential of cancer vaccines, highlighting challenges and opportunities to advance promising candidates to the clinic.

Cancer vaccines: the next immunotherapy frontier