Lessons learned from cancer vaccine trials and target antigen choice

A wide variety of tumor antigens have been targeted in cancer immunotherapy studies. Traditionally, the focus has been on commonly overexpressed antigens shared across many patients and/or tumor types. As the field has progressed, the identity of human tumor rejection antigens has broadened. Immunologic monitoring of clinical trials has slowly elucidated candidate biomarkers of immune response and clinical response, and conversely, of immune dysfunction and suppression. We have utilized MART-1/Melan-A in our melanoma studies and observed a high frequency of immune responses and several significant clinical responses in patients vaccinated with this melanosomal protein. Alpha-fetoprotein is a shared, overexpressed tumor antigen and secreted glycoprotein that we have tested in hepatocellular cancer vaccines. Our recent studies have identified immunosuppressive and immune-skewing activities of this antigen. The choice of target antigen and its form can have unexpected effects.