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Review
. 2019 Jul;28(3):337-351.
doi: 10.1016/j.soc.2019.02.003. Epub 2019 Apr 15.

Vaccine Strategy in Melanoma

Minyoung Kwak  1 , Katie M Leick  2 , Marit M Melssen  3 , Craig L Slingluff Jr  4
Affiliations
Review

Vaccine Strategy in Melanoma

Minyoung Kwak et al. Surg Oncol Clin N Am. 2019 Jul.

Abstract

The incidence of melanoma continues to increase even as advances in immunotherapy have led to survival benefits in advanced stages. Vaccines are capable of inducing strong, antitumor immune responses with limited toxicity. Some vaccines have demonstrated clinical benefit in clinical trials alone; however, others have not despite inducing strong immune responses. Recent advancements have improved vaccine design, and combining vaccines with other immunotherapies offers promise. This review highlights the underlying principles of vaccine development, common components of vaccines, and the remaining challenges and future directions of vaccine therapy in melanoma.

Keywords: Melanoma; Neoantigen; T cell; Tumor-associated antigen; Vaccine; Vaccine adjuvant.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:. Mechanism of immune response induction following vaccination.
Step 1. Vaccination allows tumor antigen to be taken up by antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Step 2. Adjuvant stimulation supports activation and maturation of APCs. Step 3. APCs present antigen to CD8 T cells via MHC class I and to CD4 T cells through MHC class II, resulting in their activation and proliferation and thereby launching an antitumor immune response.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Different types of tumor-associated antigens in melanoma
Figure 3:
Figure 3:. Current vaccine trials in melanoma.
The number of active clinical trials for each melanoma vaccine vehicle as of July 2018 on ClinicalTrials.gov are shown in A. Number of active trials using combination therapies and adjuvants are quantified for peptide vaccines in B and dendritic cell vaccines in C.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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