Vaccine therapy for pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease and currently available therapies have significant limitations. Pancreatic cancer is thus an ideal setting for the development of novel treatment modalities such as immunotherapy. However, relevant obstacles must be overcome for immunotherapeutic regimens against pancreatic cancer to be successful. Vaccine therapy relies on the administration of biological preparations that include an antigen that (at least ideally) is specifically expressed by malignant cells, boosting the natural ability of the immune system to react against neoplastic cells. There are a number of ways to deliver anticancer vaccines. Potent vaccines stimulate antigen presentation by dendritic cells, hence driving the expansion of antigen-specific effector and memory T cells. Unlike vaccines given as a prophylaxis against infectious diseases, anticancer vaccines require the concurrent administration of agents that interfere with the natural predisposition of tumors to drive immunosuppression. The safety and efficacy of vaccines against pancreatic cancer are nowadays being tested in early phase clinical trials.

Keywords: :

• pancreatic cancer
• immunotherapy
• cancer vaccine
• clinical trials
• immune checkpoint

Citation: Salman B, Zhou D, Jaffee EM, Edil BH, Zheng L. Vaccine therapy for pancreatic cancer. OncoImmunology 2013; 2:e26662; 10.4161/onci.26662

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

Under a licensing agreement between Aduro Biotech and the Johns Hopkins University, the University is entitled to milestone payments and royalty on sales of the GM-CSF secreting pancreatic tumor vaccine product described in this manuscript.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the NIH K23 CA148964–01 (L.Z.), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Clinical Scientist Award (L.Z.), an American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award (L.Z.), Viragh Foundation and the Skip Viragh Pancreatic Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins (E.M.J. nd L.Z), The National Pancreas Foundation (L.Z.), Lefkofsky Family Foundation (L.Z.), the NCI SPORE in Gastrointestinal Cancers P50 CA062924 (E.M.J. and L.Z.), Lustgarten Foundation (L.Z.), and the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Center (L.Z. and B.H.E.), E.M.J. is the first recipient of the Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Endowed Professorship.