Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 May 3;4(2):10.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines4020010.

Cancer Vaccines in Ovarian Cancer: How Can We Improve?

Silvia Martin Lluesma  1 , Anita Wolfer  2 , Alexandre Harari  3 , Lana E Kandalaft  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Cancer Vaccines in Ovarian Cancer: How Can We Improve?

Silvia Martin Lluesma et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one important cause of gynecologic cancer-related death. Currently, the mainstay of ovarian cancer treatment consists of cytoreductive surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy (introduced 30 years ago) but, as the disease is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, its prognosis remains very poor. Clearly, there is a critical need for new treatment options, and immunotherapy is one attractive alternative. Prophylactic vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases have led to major achievements, yet therapeutic cancer vaccines have shown consistently low efficacy in the past. However, as they are associated with minimal side effects or invasive procedures, efforts directed to improve their efficacy are being deployed, with Dendritic Cell (DC) vaccination strategies standing as one of the more promising options. On the other hand, recent advances in our understanding of immunological mechanisms have led to the development of successful strategies for the treatment of different cancers, such as immune checkpoint blockade strategies. Combining these strategies with DC vaccination approaches and introducing novel combinatorial designs must also be considered and evaluated. In this review, we will analyze past vaccination methods used in ovarian cancer, and we will provide different suggestions aiming to improve their efficacy in future trials.

Keywords: cancer vaccines; dendritic cell vaccination; ovarian cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of required considerations to implement a successful vaccination strategy in ovarian cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ovarian Cancer: Statistics. [(accessed on 22 January 2016)]. Available online: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/ovarian-cancer/statistics.
    1. IARC GLOBOCAN 2012. [(accessed 18 February 2016)]. Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide (Ovary) Available online: http://globocan.iarc.fr/old/burden.asp?selection_pop=224900&Text-p=World....
    1. Vaughan S., Coward J.I., Bast R.C., Jr., Berchuck A., Berek J.S., Brenton J.D., Coukos G., Crum C.C., Drapkin R., Etemadmoghadam D., et al. Rethinking ovarian cancer: Recommendations for improving outcomes. Nat. Rev. Cancer. 2011;11:719–725. doi: 10.1038/nrc3144. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang L., Conejo-Garcia J.R., Katsaros D., Gimotty P.A., Massobrio M., Regnani G., Makrigiannakis A., Gray H., Schlienger K., Liebman M.N., et al. Intratumoral t cells, recurrence, and survival in epithelial ovarian cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 2003;348:203–213. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa020177. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schlienger K., Chu C.S., Woo E.Y., Rivers P.M., Toll A.J., Hudson B., Maus M.V., Riley J.L., Choi Y., Coukos G., et al. TRANCE- and CD40 ligand-matured dendritic cells reveal MHC class I-restricted T cells specific for autologous tumor in late-stage ovarian cancer patients. Clin. Cancer Res. 2003;9:1517–1527. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources