Antigen-specific cancer vaccines.

The past decade has seen a number of clinical vaccination trials investigating defined tumor antigens. These trials have taught us the immunologic consequences of various vaccination approaches, although the clinical efficacy of the vaccines has only reached the proof-of-concept level. Detailed and rigorous immune monitoring will be crucial for successful further development of cancer vaccines as well as defining patient populations likely to benefit. At a recent meeting of the Berlin Oncology Summer Seminar (BOSS) the clinical and translational cancer vaccine program ongoing at the Charité was presented, and this paper contains a summary of the presentation as well as the subsequent discussion.