Introduction: Concepts in Developing Human lumor Vaccines

Abstract

In the Research News section of Science in August 1989, Jean L. Marx announced that“cancer vaccines show promise at last” [1]. Less than a decade ago, human tumor vaccines were considered at best a curiosity. This perception appears to be changing. In recent years, several persevering groups at various universities and cancer centers have started to report positive clinical responses in patients treated with tumor vaccines after conventional therapies failed. This may represent the beginning of a new approach not only in human cancer management but also in understanding the mechanisms of autoreactivity as they relate to recognition of human cancer cells.