Recombinant viral vaccines for cancer

Cancer arises from ‘self’ in a series of steps that are all subject to immunoediting. Therefore, therapeutic cancer vaccines must stimulate an immune response against tumour antigens that have already evaded the body's immune defences. Vaccines presenting a tumour antigen in the context of obvious danger signals seem more likely to stimulate a response. This approach can be facilitated by genetic engineering using recombinant viral vectors expressing tumour antigens, cytokines, or both, from an immunogenic virus particle. We overview clinical attempts to use these agents for systemic immunisation and contrast the results with strategies employing direct intratumoural administration. We focus on the challenge of producing an effective response within the immune-suppressive tumour microenvironment, and discuss how the technology can overcome these obstacles.