Present and future of lung cancer vaccines

Abstract

New approaches are needed to improve the current treatment of lung cancer. Inducing an immune response against lung tumour cells with vaccines represents an attractive therapy. However, lung tumours had not been considered good targets for vaccine therapy and, therefore, immune approaches have not been studied extensively in this setting. Current experimental strategies for antitumour vaccines include the generation of active immune responses against specific tumour antigens. Understanding the mechanisms of antitumour immunity and identifying relevant tumour-specific antigens will probably improve therapeutic strategies and provide avenues for the future of lung cancer therapy. There have been a number of preclinical immunotherapy trials suggesting activity, and a smaller number of human clinical trials using various vaccines in lung cancer. Initial data from these trials have shown preliminary evidence of induction of immune responses and suggest clinical activity. This paper reviews some of the most important developments in vaccines for lung cancer.