Personalized peptide vaccines for cancer therapy: current progress and state of the art. Issue 6 (2nd November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wada, Satoshi; Yada, Erica; Ohtake, Junya; Sasada, Tetsuro
• Is Part Of: Expert review of precision medicine and drug development. Volume 2:Issue 6(2017)
• Page Start: 371
• Page End: 381
• Publication Date: 2017-11-02
• Subjects: Cancer immunotherapy -- cancer vaccine -- clinical trial -- gene mutation -- neo-antigen -- next-generation peptide sequencing -- personalized immunotherapy -- personalized peptide vaccine -- tumor antigen; Personalized medicine -- Periodicals; Drug development -- Periodicals; 615.19005
• DOI: 10.1080/23808993.2017.1403286
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2380-8993

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Introduction : Accumulating evidence for the feasibility and efficacy of cancer immunotherapy is ushering in a paradigm shift for cancer treatment. Notably, immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as antibodies against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 and programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death ligand 1, show substantial clinical benefits in certain types of cancers. Nevertheless, the response rates to immune checkpoint inhibitors are only 20–30% of patients at most, possibly because the activated immune response is not sufficiently specific. The activation of non-tumor-specific cells leads, theoretically, to autoimmunity and not to tumor regression. Therefore, other approaches that can activate tumor-specific immune cells, such as cancer peptide vaccines, must be developed to improve cancer immunotherapeutic options. Areas covered : In this review, the authors discuss current and future perspectives on cancer-specific immunotherapies, particularly cancer peptide vaccines. Expert commentary : Personalized peptide vaccines against peptides that are recognized by patient T cells elicit immediate, tumor-specific immune responses. Furthermore, advances in genomics and bioinformatics have facilitated the generation of personalized peptide vaccines derived from neo-antigens, which have proven safe in clinical trials. In the future, combination therapies that utilize checkpoint inhibitors and peptide vaccines may improve response rates and patient outcomes.