Melanoma vaccines

Remarkable advances in tumor vaccination have been made since Coley first d eliberately infected cancer patients with both live and heat-killed bacteri a. Melanoma is the most immunogenic solid tumor and, as such, has served as the major model for tumor vaccine investigation in both the laboratory and the clinic. Many advances in the field of melanoma vaccination have been b ased on an improved understanding of the cellular interaction required to i nduce a specific antitumor immune response. As a result of this new knowled ge, many clinical trials of melanoma vaccines are now under way, and vaccin es for metastatic melanoma have shown evidence of clinical effectiveness. T his paper outlines the current status of melanoma vaccination. (C) 2000 Lip pincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.