A critical review on cancer vaccines based on tumor-associated anti-gens: a promising immunotherapy

Cancer vaccines are a type of immunotherapy that can assist in educating the immune system about what cancer cells "look like" so that it can practively destroy them. The development of cancer vaccines based on tumor-associated antigens is hurdled by lack of an efficient adjuvant and insufficient efficacy. To improve the efficacy of vaccines, a genetically engineered method was reviewed with the view to achieve the codelivery of antigen and adjuvant to enhance immune responses. For more than 25 years, the development of cancer vaccines has been at the forefront of cancer research. The main emphasis has been on delivery strategies used to pro-mote strong and long-lasting immune responses. Recent developments have made it possible to advance the engineering of therapeutic cancer vaccines. Target selection, vaccine development and techniques for overturning immunosuppressive systems used by malignancies have all made significant strides. To accelerate future developments and provide guidance to the pro-spective participants in this field, this commentary-style review provides an overview of recent developments in the field of therapeutic, HPV and DNA cancer vaccines especially focusing on modelling and simulation advances to date.