What strategies are used to design effective cancer treatment vaccines?
Researchers have developed several strategies to stimulate an immune response against tumors. One is to identify unusual or unique cancer cell antigens that are rarely present on normal cells. Other techniques involve making the tumor-associated antigen more immunogenic, such as (a) altering its amino acid structure slightly, (b) placing the gene for the tumor antigen into a viral vector (a harmless virus that can be used as a vehicle to deliver genetic material to a targeted cell), and (c) adding genes for one or more immuno-stimulatory molecules into vectors along with the genes for the tumor antigen. Another technique is to attach something that is definitely foreign, known as an adjuvant, to tumor molecules (see Question 8). By using the adjuvant as a decoy, the immune system may be tricked into attacking both the antigen/adjuvant complex (the vaccine) and the patient’s tumor. • What types of treatment vaccines are currently under investigation? The types of vaccines listed below r
