Unlocking cancer vaccine potential: What are the key factors?

ABSTRACT

Cancer is a global health challenge, with changing demographics and lifestyle factors producing an increasing burden worldwide. Screening advancements are enabling earlier diagnoses, but current cancer immunotherapies only induce remission in a small proportion of patients and come at a high cost. Cancer vaccines may offer a solution to these challenges, but they have been mired by poor results in past decades. Greater understanding of tumor biology, coupled with the success of vaccine technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic, has reinvigorated cancer vaccine development. With the first signs of efficacy being reported, cancer vaccines may be beginning to fulfill their potential. Solid tumors, however, present different hurdles than infectious diseases. Combining insights from previous cancer vaccine clinical development and contemporary knowledge of tumor immunology, we ask: who are the ‘right’ patients, what are the ‘right’ targets, and which are the ‘right’ modalities to maximize the chances of cancer vaccine success?

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer vaccine
• solid tumors
• immunotherapy
• cancer antigen
• tumor biology
• clinical development
• oncology

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Professors Teresa Lambe and Paul Klenerman (University of Oxford) for their input and guidance on the content of this article.

Author contributions statement

MG and LNL were involved in the conception and design, analysis, and interpretation of the data; the drafting of the paper, revising it critically for intellectual content; and the final approval of the version to be published.

SC, JK, OT, VPA, and CL were involved in the drafting of the paper, revising it critically for intellectual content; and the final approval of the version to be published.

NC, LT, and AS were involved in the drafting of the paper.

All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

MG is a shareholder in Achilles Therapeutics Ltd. and has previously received honoraria from Merck Sharp & Dohme.

LNL, SC, and JK are co-founders and shareholders of Infinitopes Ltd.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.