The Development of Tumor Neoantigen Vaccine Immunotherapy

College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, 266071 Qingdao, China

Abstract

Activating the immune system to fight against cancers has long been a goal in immunology and oncology studies. Recent clinical-trial data proved that boosting the activity of endogenous T cells to destroy cancer cells has great potential in controlling the progression of a variety of human malignancies. In essence, neoantigen is at the core of tumor immunology. Autologous T lymphocytes could distinguish tumor cells from normal cells by recognizing neoantigens, which are tumor specific. Neoantigens are derived from genome somatic mutations of tumors, and there are different approaches to predict and identify them with increasing accuracy. Neoantigens are tumor specific, which are ideal and attractive targets for tumor immunotherapies; many neoantigen-based clinical trials are being carried out around the world. In this review, we will discuss the recent advances of tumor neoantigen vaccine immunotherapy, and present the potential obstacle and future direction of this approach.