Uploaded May 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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Vaccines have truly revolutiones medicine. Voltaire estimated that 20% of the European population died from smallpox during the 18th century. Since Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine (against smallpox), many diseases have been nearly eradicated. Vaccines, similar to regular infections, provoke responses from the innate and the adaptive immune system. This leads to the generation of memory T and B cells, which can remain inside our body for the rest of our lives. However, vaccinations generally do not cause harmful infections.
Here, we discuss the possibility of using vaccination to cure certain forms of cancer. Cancer vaccination is (besides CAR-T cell therapy, immunostimulation, and checkpoint inhibitors) another form of immunotherapy.
There are two main approaches to lower the number of cancer cases. We can vaccinate people against viruses which might provoke cancer or we can vaccinate cancer patients to enable their immune system to kill cancer cells. Vaccines against viruses which are associated with human cancers are very similar to conventional vaccines. Today, vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) are commercially available. HPV is a virus which can cause cervical cancers in women. In the UK, girls (and soon also boys) are routinely offered HPV vaccines.
However, we can also vaccinate cancer patients against tumours cells. The principle is that we produce vaccines against proteins (or antigens) which are normally not frequently found in the human body. Since cancer cells mutate at very high rates, they often exhibit "weird" proteins on their surface or produce proteins with characteristic mutations. The ladder are called neoantigens.
It is important to note that the immune system mostly recognises mutated cells and kills them before they become cancer cells. In this regard, T cells and natural killer cells are of enormous importance.
In the last years several clinical trials were conducted based on cancer vaccination. In 2010, Provenge or Sipoleucel-T was approved as the first cancer vaccine for advanced prostate cancer. In another study, a vaccine was combined with two other compounds, named cyclophosphamide and trastuzumab to treat breast cancer patients. In both cases, patients benefited from the vaccine (although the outcomes have yet to be improved).
For your further research:
Chen G, Gupta R, Petrik S, et al. A feasibility study of cyclophosphamide, trastuzumab, and an allogeneic GM-CSF-secreting breast tumor vaccine for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. Cancer Immunol Res. 2014;2:949-61.
Oiseth, S. J., & Aziz, M. S. (2017). Cancer immunotherapy: a brief review of the history, possibilities, and challenges ahead. J Cancer Metastasis Treat, 3(10), 250-61.
Riedel, S. (2005, January). Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. In Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings (Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 21-25).
Schwartzentruber DJ, et al. gp100 peptide vaccine and interleukin-2 in patients with advanced melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2011; 364:2119–2127.
Music:
Intro:
Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com
Transitions:
Light Thought var 3 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: incompetech.com
About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a postgraduate student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.
Subscribe for more awesome biomedical research: bit.ly/2SRMqhC
Vaccines have truly revolutiones medicine. Voltaire estimated that 20% of the European population died from smallpox during the 18th century. Since Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine (against smallpox), many diseases have been nearly eradicated. Vaccines, similar to regular infections, provoke responses from the innate and the adaptive immune system. This leads to the generation of memory T and B cells, which can remain inside our body for the rest of our lives. However, vaccinations generally do not cause harmful infections.
Here, we discuss the possibility of using vaccination to cure certain forms of cancer. Cancer vaccination is (besides CAR-T cell therapy, immunostimulation, and checkpoint inhibitors) another form of immunotherapy.
There are two main approaches to lower the number of cancer cases. We can vaccinate people against viruses which might provoke cancer or we can vaccinate cancer patients to enable their immune system to kill cancer cells. Vaccines against viruses which are associated with human cancers are very similar to conventional vaccines. Today, vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) are commercially available. HPV is a virus which can cause cervical cancers in women. In the UK, girls (and soon also boys) are routinely offered HPV vaccines.
However, we can also vaccinate cancer patients against tumours cells. The principle is that we produce vaccines against proteins (or antigens) which are normally not frequently found in the human body. Since cancer cells mutate at very high rates, they often exhibit "weird" proteins on their surface or produce proteins with characteristic mutations. The ladder are called neoantigens.
It is important to note that the immune system mostly recognises mutated cells and kills them before they become cancer cells. In this regard, T cells and natural killer cells are of enormous importance.
In the last years several clinical trials were conducted based on cancer vaccination. In 2010, Provenge or Sipoleucel-T was approved as the first cancer vaccine for advanced prostate cancer. In another study, a vaccine was combined with two other compounds, named cyclophosphamide and trastuzumab to treat breast cancer patients. In both cases, patients benefited from the vaccine (although the outcomes have yet to be improved).
For your further research:
Chen G, Gupta R, Petrik S, et al. A feasibility study of cyclophosphamide, trastuzumab, and an allogeneic GM-CSF-secreting breast tumor vaccine for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. Cancer Immunol Res. 2014;2:949-61.
Oiseth, S. J., & Aziz, M. S. (2017). Cancer immunotherapy: a brief review of the history, possibilities, and challenges ahead. J Cancer Metastasis Treat, 3(10), 250-61.
Riedel, S. (2005, January). Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. In Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings (Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 21-25).
Schwartzentruber DJ, et al. gp100 peptide vaccine and interleukin-2 in patients with advanced melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2011; 364:2119–2127.
Music:
Intro:
Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com
Transitions:
Light Thought var 3 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: incompetech.com
About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a postgraduate student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.
