Active specific immunization in the treatment of patients with melanoma

The bonafide albeit infrequent examples of tumor regression observed with whole tumor cell vaccines give evidence for the hypothesis that active specific immunization can induce a therapeutically effective immune response in melanoma patients. A dinitrophenyl-conjugated autologous whole tumor cell plus bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine administered in conjunction with low dose cyclophosphamide has produced clinically significant prolongation of disease free survival when used as a postsurgical adjuvant in patients with stage III melanoma. However, tumor cell-based vaccines are cumbersome and consequently of limited applicability. Improvements in our understanding of the antimelanoma immune response and technological advances have allowed investigators to explore better defined immunogens and antigenic targets; these include anti-idiotypic antibodies, gangliosides, and tumor associated/specific proteins and derived peptides. The rationale for, promise of, and progress to date with these materials are reviewed.