Recent progress in cancer immunotherapy has resulted in complete responses in patients refractory to current standard cancer therapies. However, due to tumor heterogeneity and inter-individual variations in anti-tumor immunity, only subsets of patients experience clinical benefit. This review highlights the implementation of a personalized approach to enhance treatment efficacy and reduce side effects, including the identification of tumor-specific antigens for cancer vaccination and adoptive T cell therapies. Furthermore, together with the current advances and promising clinical outcomes of combination cancer (immuno-)therapies, the screening for predictive biomarkers in a patient-specific manner is emphasized.
Keywords: Adoptive T cell therapy; Cancer immunotherapy; Personalized medicine; Predictive biomarkers; Tumor antigens; Tumor heterogeneity.
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