EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE STRATEGIES FOR CANCER-IMMUNOTHERAPY

Recently, cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a therapeutic option for the management of cancer patients. This is based on the fact that our immune system, once activated, is capable of developing specific immu nity against neoplastic but not normal cells. Increasing evidence sugg ests that cell-mediated immunity, particularly T-cell-mediated immunit y, is important for the control of tumor cells. Several experimental v accine strategies have been developed to enhance cell-mediated immunit y against tumors. Some of these tumor vaccines have generated promisin g results in murine tumor systems. In addition, several phase I/II cli nical trials using these vaccine strategies have shown extremely encou raging results in patients. In this review, we will discuss many of th ese promising cancer vaccine strategies. We will pay particular attent ion to the strategies employing dendritic cells, the central player fo r tumor vaccine development.