Induced pluripotent stem cells as a novel cancer vaccine

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Although many current cancer therapies are effective, the mortality rate globally is unacceptably high. Cancer remains the second leading cause of death worldwide after heart disease and has caused nearly 10 million deaths in 2018. Additionally, current preventive therapies for cancer are underdeveloped, undermining the quality of life of high-risk individuals. Therefore, new treatment options for targeting cancer are urgently needed. In a recent study, researchers adopted an autologous iPSC-based vaccine to present a broad spectrum of tumor antigens to the immune system and succeeded in orchestrating a strong prophylactic immunity towards multiple types of cancer in mice.

Areas covered: In this review, we provide an overview of how cancer develops, the role of immune surveillance in cancer progression, the current status and challenges of cancer immunotherapy as well as the genetic overlap between pluripotent stem cells and cancer cells. Finally, we discuss the rationale for an autologous iPSC-based vaccine and its applications in murine cancer models.

Expert opinion: The autologous iPSC-based vaccine is a promising preventive and therapeutic strategy for fighting various types of cancers. Continuing efforts and clinical/translational follow-up studies may bring an autologous iPSC-based cancer vaccination approach from bench to bedside.

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer immunotherapy
• whole-cell based vaccine
• induced pluripotent stem cells
• personalized medicine

Article highlights

• Proposed models in the field explaining the initiation and propagation of cancer.

• The importance of immune surveillance in cancer development and a summary of major cancer immunotherapies.

• Immunogenicity of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their genetic similarities with cancer cells.

• Utilization of autologous iPSC-based vaccines to target murine tumors.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of interest

JC Wu is co-founder of Khloris Biosciences. However, research in his laboratory is independent from and not supported by Khloris Biosciences. MD Pegram was a member of the data and safety monitoring committee for a phase 2 randomized trial of neratinib monotherapy vs lapatinib plus capecitabine combination therapy in patients with ERBB2-positive advanced breast cancer; a consultant to Pfizer and Genentech/Roche, and a coinvestigator on protocol NCT02536339; a member of the steering committee for the Oncothyreon-sponsored clinical trial NCT02614794. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by NIH R01 HL141851, R01 HL123968, and Stanford Cancer Institute (a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center).