© 2006 European Society for Medical Oncology
editorial |
Melanoma vaccines – they should work
CRUK Department of Medical Oncology, Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester M20 4BX, UK
(E-mail: paul.lorigan@christie-tr.nwest.nhs.uk)
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
There are strong rational arguments for why tumour vaccines should be effective in melanoma, including documented spontaneous remissions, lymphocytic infiltration of tumours, expression of developmental and melanoma-specific antigens on tumour tissue, and responses to biological agents. The concept of ‘tumour vaccines’ encompasses approaches that result in tumour cell kill by presentation of tumour antigens to T-cells to stimulate an immune response specific for tumour cells, and efforts that focus on effector cells – often both strategies are used. For an excellent review of this subject, see Ribas et al. [1
]. The NCI PDQ website http://www.cancer.gov/search currently lists 113 studies in melanoma; 34 are vaccine-based and a further 27 involve cytokines or cell therapy. However, despite over 15 years of studies with melanoma vaccines, none has yet been approved for use outside of a clinical trial.
Unresolved questions