IL-13 receptor-directed cancer vaccines and immunotherapy.

Many immunotherapy approaches including therapeutic cancer vaccines targeting specific tumor-associated antigens are at various stages of development. Although the significance of overexpression of (IL-13Rα2) in cancer is being actively investigated, we have reported that IL-13Rα2 is a novel tumor-associated antigen. The IL-13Rα2-directed cancer vaccine is one of the most promising approaches to tumor immunotherapy, because of the selective expression of IL-13Rα2 in various solid tumor types but not in normal tissues. In this article, we will summarize its present status and potential strategies to improve IL-13Rα2-directed cancer vaccines for an optimal therapy of cancer.