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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Vaccines and Molecular Therapeutics

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1660874

This article is part of the Research TopicTransforming Vaccine Strategies: Co-Delivery Systems for Robust Immunity and Disease ControlView all 7 articles

Insights into tumor vaccines for elderly individuals in the context of immunosenescence

Provisionally accepted
Chenglong  LiChenglong Li1Zhujun  ChenZhujun Chen2Changyu  ZhuChangyu Zhu2Min  ChenMin Chen2Jinqi  LiJinqi Li2Lei  ZhongLei Zhong2Yingying  HouYingying Hou2*
  • 1Deyang People's Hospital, Deyang, China
  • 2Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The global burden of cancer is increasing tremendously, particularly among individuals aged 60 years and older, and has emerged as a critical public health concern. Cancer vaccine-induced immunity can recognize and eliminate tumor cells with high specificity and low toxicity. Nevertheless, immunosenescence increases the risk and severity of cancers in elderly individuals while impairing vaccine-induced immunity. Furthermore, much oncology research has predominantly focused on adults, often neglecting the potential contributions of aging individuals to tumor progression. Elucidating the interactions between the immunosenescent microenvironment and tumorigenesis can inspire the development of more effective cancer vaccines tailored to the characteristics of elderly individuals, thereby alleviating the global cancer burden. In this review, we analyze how the immunosenescent microenvironment impacts tumor development and summarize existing strategies aimed at enhancing cancer vaccine efficacy, drawing inspiration from insights into immunosenescence. We believe that this review will inspire efforts toward creating individualized cancer vaccines for the elderly.

Keywords: Cancer, immunosenescence, Elderly individuals, vaccine efficacy, anti-tumor immunity

Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Li, Chen, Zhu, Chen, Li, Zhong and Hou. 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: Yingying Hou, hyy_925@126.com

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