This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Schlom, J. Articles by Gulley, J. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Schlom, J. Articles by Gulley, J. L. Related Collections Therapeutics and Targets: Experimental Therapeutics– Biologics Cancer Immunology Cancer Immunology: Immunotherapy

Cancer Vaccines: Moving Beyond Current Paradigms

Authors' Affiliation: Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland

Requests for reprints: Jeffrey Schlom, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Room 8B09, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892. Phone: 301-496-4343; Fax: 301-496-2756; E-mail: js141c{at}nih.gov.

The field of cancer vaccines is currently in an active state of preclinical and clinical investigations. Although no therapeutic cancer vaccine has to date been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, several new paradigms are emerging from recent clinical findings both in the use of combination therapy approaches and, perhaps more importantly, in clinical trial design and end point analyses. This article will review recent clinical trials involving several different cancer vaccines from which data are emerging contrasting classic "tumor response" (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) criteria with "patient response" in the manifestation of increased patient survival post-vaccine therapy. Also described are several strategies in which cancer vaccines can be exploited in combination with other agents and therapeutic modalities that are quite unique when compared with "conventional" combination therapies. This is most likely due to the phenomena that (a) cancer vaccines initiate a dynamic immune process that can be exploited in subsequent therapies and (b) both radiation and certain chemotherapeutic agents have been shown to alter the phenotype of tumor cells as to render them more susceptible to T-cell–mediated killing. Consequently, evidence is emerging from several studies in which patient cohorts who first receive a cancer vaccine (as contrasted with control cohorts) benefit clinically from subsequent therapies.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. A. Madan, J. L. Gulley, J. Schlom, S. M. Steinberg, D. J. Liewehr, W. L. Dahut, and P. M. Arlen Analysis of Overall Survival in Patients with Nonmetastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Treated with Vaccine, Nilutamide, and Combination Therapy Clin. Cancer Res., July 15, 2008; 14(14): 4526 - 4531. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. T. Garnett, J. Schlom, and J. W. Hodge Combination of Docetaxel and Recombinant Vaccine Enhances T-Cell Responses and Antitumor Activity: Effects of Docetaxel on Immune Enhancement Clin. Cancer Res., June 1, 2008; 14(11): 3536 - 3544. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Schlom, J. L. Gulley, and P. M. Arlen Paradigm Shifts in Cancer Vaccine Therapy Experimental Biology and Medicine, May 1, 2008; 233(5): 522 - 534. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Yokokawa, V. Cereda, C. Remondo, J. L. Gulley, P. M. Arlen, J. Schlom, and K. Y. Tsang Enhanced Functionality of CD4+CD25highFoxP3+ Regulatory T Cells in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Prostate Cancer Clin. Cancer Res., February 15, 2008; 14(4): 1032 - 1040. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. S. Mitchell In Reply J. Clin. Oncol., October 10, 2007; 25(29): 4693 - 4695. [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. C. Prendergast Recent Movement to Exploit Key Signaling Molecules and Cancer Vaccines Cancer Reviews Online Content, August 1, 2007; 2007(5): 9 - 9. [Full Text] [PDF]