2026/07/07 by Kendra Wilson, Jesus Salvador Flores Banda, Sanjana Bukkapatnam +2 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Immunology and Microbiology · #Cancer Research and Treatments #Immunotherapy and Immune Responses #vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches
paper · doi:10.3390/vaccines14070599
openalex publication_date 2026/07/07 · openalex created_date 2026/07/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Therapeutic cancer vaccines have emerged as a promising approach in cancer immunotherapy, aiming to stimulate the immune system to recognize and eliminate malignant cells. Despite this potential, clinical efficacy has remained variable across multiple vaccine platforms. This review synthesizes completed clinical trials evaluating major therapeutic cancer vaccine modalities, including peptide-based, nucleic acid--based, dendritic cell, whole cell, and viral and bacterial vector--based vaccines, with a focus on safety, immunogenicity, and clinical outcomes for diverse tumor types. Overall, these vaccines demonstrate a favorable safety profile; however, clinical efficacy as monotherapy has been limited. Clinical outcomes vary by platform and tumor type and are influenced by factors such as antigen selection, tumor heterogeneity and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Recent advances in antigen design, vaccine technologies, and combination strategies are redefining the role of therapeutic cancer vaccines in oncology. Future progress will depend on optimizing their integration with standard treatment modalities, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors.