REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1588081
This article is part of the Research TopicImmunotherapeutic Advances in Brain TumorsView all 5 articles
Harnessing Immunotherapy: Cancer Vaccines as Novel Therapeutic Strategies for Brain Tumor
Provisionally accepted- 1Mossakowski Medical Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- 2Doctoral School of Translational Medicine, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Warsaw, Poland
- 3Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Cancer vaccines have emerged as a pivotal area of research in oncology, demonstrating significant promise in harnessing the immune system to combat cancer. Recent advancements in antigen identification and sequencing techniques have catalyzed the development of cancer vaccines whose goal is to elicit robust humoral and cellular immune responses against cancer cells. Despite their potential, most cancer vaccines are still in the experimental phase, primarily due to challenges associated with tumor-induced immune suppression. This article explores the role of cancer vaccines in brain cancer, glioblastoma, by providing a granular analysis of clinical trial results and mechanisms of resistance alongside a comparative assessment. These vaccines aim to navigate the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment by targeting glioblastoma-specific antigens, offering new hope for improved treatment outcomes. The unique mechanisms defining cancer vaccines, such as their ability to activate dendritic cells and T cells, underscore their precision in selectively attacking cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. Furthermore, the categorization of these vaccines into preventive and therapeutic types, along with various delivery methods, illustrates their diverse capacity. Finally, this review highlights the potential impact of cancer vaccine clinical trials on future cancer therapies, where effective anti-cancer strategies are within reach. It also provides an in-depth discussion of the brain tumor microenvironment and its influence on vaccine efficacy.
Keywords: Vaccine, Immunotherapy, Glioblastoma, cancer vaccine, brain tumor
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kiel, Piranlioglu, Godlewski and Bronisz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Agnieszka Bronisz, Mossakowski Medical Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.