Cancer Neoantigens as Targets for Natural and Therapeutic Anti-Tumor Responses

The immune system is capable of controlling and shaping developing cancers by the process of cancer immunoediting. It can also be used therapeutically to treat a variety of established cancers. Several immunotherapeutic modalities have been approved by the FDA and include monoclonal antibody blockade of immune checkpoints as well as adoptive transfer of tumor-specific T cells into cancer patients. While these approaches are showing unprecedented effects on a subset of cancer patients, they nevertheless are effective in only a subset of patients with any particular cancer and are not without risk of adverse events.

In other words, we still need to improve cancer immunotherapy by making it more effective, more specific, and safer.

Mutant proteins in a tumor can function as tumor-specific mutant antigens (neoantigens), and some of these can induce immune control of cancer. This webinar addresses how mouse and human cancers  have been used to identify therapeutically useful tumor neoantigens; how these neoantigens can form the basis for personalized cancer vaccines; and what additional forms of therapy are needed to optimize the therapeutic effects of personalized cancer vaccines.