Therapeutic cancer vaccines have the potential to induce durable and tumor-specific immune responses in addition to the widely used immune checkpoint blockade therapies. These vaccines aim to stimulate an immune response in individuals already diagnosed with cancer, enhancing the recognition and destruction of tumor cells. Typically, they involve introducing tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) or neoantigens to activate cytotoxic T lymphocytes and other immune effectors, leading to tumor regression or improved disease control.Various strategies have been explored in the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines, including antigen selection and delivery platforms. Moreover, the use of simultaneous or sequential combination therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors or chemotherapy has shown promising outcomes, guiding efforts to identify optimal strategies.Despite considerable advancements in understanding immunological mechanisms and developing new technologies, significant barriers still impede the widespread success of therapeutic cancer vaccines in diverse cancers. This Research Topic aims to understand current limits and challenges and provide an insight to improve therapeutic cancer vaccines efficacy and clinical impact. This will provide an overview of the latest advances in the field of therapeutic cancer vaccines, including the therapeutic cancer vaccine mechanisms, design of effective antigens, diverse vaccine and delivery platforms, preclinical studies to evaluate their efficacy, as well as clinical trials. This Research Topic accepts Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review and Mini-Review, Clinical Trial, Perspective, Case Report, Brief Research Report. We welcome manuscripts focusing on, but not limited to, the following sub-topics:• Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines mechanisms and efficacy as a monotherapy or combinatorial therapy in preclinical and clinical studies• Effective antigen selection (antigen types, antigen identification strategies, etc.)• Vaccine components and platforms (viral, cellular, molecular based, and delivery etc.)• Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine Clinical trialsManuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this topic.Topic Editor Hyejin Choi is an employee of Johnson & Johnson and hold its shares. Topic Editor Mariam Mathew George has a US patent US11920202 describing the unbiased identification of tumor rejection mediating neoepitopes. Topic Editor Jayon Lihm holds shares as below: Adaptive 23.53 shares, 10X genomics 7 shares, Roche 5 shares and Illumina 0.5 shares.Topic Editor James Moon declares financial interests for board membership, as a paid consultant, for research funding, and/or as equity holder in EVOQ Therapeutics, and Saros Therapeutics. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines have the potential to induce durable and tumor-specific immune responses in addition to the widely used immune checkpoint blockade therapies. These vaccines aim to stimulate an immune response in individuals already diagnosed with cancer, enhancing the recognition and destruction of tumor cells. Typically, they involve introducing tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) or neoantigens to activate cytotoxic T lymphocytes and other immune effectors, leading to tumor regression or improved disease control.Various strategies have been explored in the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines, including antigen selection and delivery platforms. Moreover, the use of simultaneous or sequential combination therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors or chemotherapy has shown promising outcomes, guiding efforts to identify optimal strategies.Despite considerable advancements in understanding immunological mechanisms and developing new technologies, significant barriers still impede the widespread success of therapeutic cancer vaccines in diverse cancers. This Research Topic aims to understand current limits and challenges and provide an insight to improve therapeutic cancer vaccines efficacy and clinical impact. This will provide an overview of the latest advances in the field of therapeutic cancer vaccines, including the therapeutic cancer vaccine mechanisms, design of effective antigens, diverse vaccine and delivery platforms, preclinical studies to evaluate their efficacy, as well as clinical trials. This Research Topic accepts Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review and Mini-Review, Clinical Trial, Perspective, Case Report, Brief Research Report. We welcome manuscripts focusing on, but not limited to, the following sub-topics:• Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines mechanisms and efficacy as a monotherapy or combinatorial therapy in preclinical and clinical studies• Effective antigen selection (antigen types, antigen identification strategies, etc.)• Vaccine components and platforms (viral, cellular, molecular based, and delivery etc.)• Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine Clinical trialsManuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this topic.Topic Editor Hyejin Choi is an employee of Johnson & Johnson and hold its shares. Topic Editor Mariam Mathew George has a US patent US11920202 describing the unbiased identification of tumor rejection mediating neoepitopes. Topic Editor Jayon Lihm holds shares as below: Adaptive 23.53 shares, 10X genomics 7 shares, Roche 5 shares and Illumina 0.5 shares.Topic Editor James Moon declares financial interests for board membership, as a paid consultant, for research funding, and/or as equity holder in EVOQ Therapeutics, and Saros Therapeutics. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject.