[Tumor vaccination-strategies and time points]

Immunotherapies have gained increasing importance in the treatment of cancer in recent years. This also includes tumor vaccines, which are used therapeutically to direct the immune system specifically against tumor cells.

Different strategies of tumor vaccination, their current state of development, the optimal timing and possible combinations of cancer vaccines in the treatment of cancer are discussed.

Scientific publications on various tumor vaccination strategies based on ongoing studies that are listed on clinicaltrials.gov are summarized.

For effective tumor vaccination, the selection of suitable tumor antigens present on the cell surface via human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules is essential. Suitable antigens should be present exclusively on tumor cells and able to induce a specific anti-tumor immune response, i.e. activate cytotoxic and T helper cells. For this purpose, neoepitopes derived from tumor-specific mutations or tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), which are present exclusively in tumor tissue due to altered gene expression or processing, can be used. For the application of the antigens, various strategies combined with suitable adjuvants are available, including peptide vaccines, DNA- or RNA-based vaccines, approaches with dendritic cells or whole tumor cell vaccines. Currently, numerous vaccination approaches as well as combination protocols are being evaluated in clinical trials with the aim to establish specific and low side effect immunotherapies to combat malignancies and enable long-term protection from disease recurrence via the induction of long-lasting antitumor immune responses.