Vaccination therapy in renal cell carcinoma: current position and future options in metastatic and localized disease

Abstract

As renal cell carcinoma represents one of the most immune-responsive cancers, immunotherapy exhibits a suitable treatment basis. Beside nonspecific stimulation via cytokines, passive specific and active immunotherapy are also appropriate options to recognize and destroy tumor cells. For more than 30 years, research regarding vaccination therapy has been of special interest for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma. However, apart from occasional promising results in Phase I and II trials, vaccination therapy is still considered experimental in this tumor entity, especially owing to missing results from Phase III trials demonstrating clinical efficacy. In the present article, we review data from completed clinical trials of vaccination therapy and also discuss scheduled future trials, in order to assess the current position and possible future fields of application of vaccination therapy in renal cell carcinoma in the era of recently developed targeted therapies.

Keywords::

• autologous tumor cell vaccine
• dendritic cell-based vaccine
• genetically modified vaccine
• immunomodulation
• peptide-based vaccine
• renal cell carcinoma
• vaccination therapy

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.