Boosting anticancer vaccines: Too much of a good thing?

Oncoimmunology. 2013 Jul 1;2(7):e25032. doi: 10.4161/onci.25032. Epub 2013 May 16.

Abstract

Using both transplantable and oncogene-driven autochthonous tumor models challenged with dendritic cell-based vaccines, we have recently found that boosting provides a clear advantage in prophylactic settings, unless performed on an excessively tight schedule, which causes the loss of central memory T cells. In therapeutic settings, boosting turned out to be always detrimental.

Keywords: B16; T cell; TRAMP; adjuvant; cancer; cytotoxic T lymphocytes; melanoma; memory; prostate cancer; vaccines.