Is It Possible to Develop Cancer Vaccines to Neoantigens, What Are the Major Challenges, and How Can These Be Overcome?: Neoantigens as vaccine targets for cancer

Abstract

Recent work by several groups has undoubtedly shown that we can produce cancer vaccines targeting neoantigens. However, each vaccine is essentially a single-use, patient-specific product, making this approach resource-intensive. For this reason, it is important to ask whether this approach will be any more successful than what has been attempted during the last 30 years using vaccines targeting self-epitopes. Here, we discuss what might be expected from neoantigen vaccines based on our experience in chronic viral infections, and how this new approach may be applied to cancer immunotherapy.