Summaries of Must-Read Clinical Literature, Guidelines, and FDA Actions
Are Anti-Cancer Vaccines Feasible?
Blood Rev; ePub 2018 Feb 15; Nahas, et al
The quest to develop vaccines that attack tumor cells continues, with researchers suggesting that the best approach may be a combination strategy that includes both anti-cancer vaccines and checkpoint blockage agents. Key points of a recent study include:
- Investigators have discovered that allogeneic hematopoietic call transplants can cure a small subgroup of patients.
- The success in the subset of patients has been the result of a graft-vs-tumor effect that is mediated by alloreactive lymphocytes.
- One of the goals of cancer vaccine research is to re-train a patient’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells by activating and expanding effector cell populations.
- If vaccines can be designed to introduce tumor-associated antigens, and if tolerance to these antigens can be reversed, it may be possible to create a new family of effective chemotherapeutic agents.
Citation:
Nahas MR, Rosenblatt J, Lazarus HM, Avigan D. Anti-cancer vaccine therapy for hematologic malignancies: An evolving era. [Published online ahead of print February 15, 2018]. Blood Rev. doi:10.1016/j.blre.2018.02.002.