Developments in cancer vaccines for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for about 6 % of all new cancers diagnosed worldwide and represents one of the leading causes of cancer-related death globally in men and women, respectively. The overall prognosis for HCC patients is poor, especially in the majority of patients with more advanced stage of disease. Indeed, in such cases immunotherapeutic strategies may represent a novel and effective tool. A few immunotherapy trials conducted for HCC have provided divergent results, urging the scientific community to explore additional paths to improve efficacy of immunotherapeutic approaches. The "Cancer Vaccine development for Hepatocellular Carcinoma"-HEPAVAC Consortium has been funded by the EU within the FP7 with the goal of developing a novel therapeutic peptide-based cancer vaccine strategy for HCC including both "off-the-shelf" and personalized antigens. This will be one of the very few vaccine trials for HCC and the first multi-epitope, multi-target and multi-HLA allele therapeutic cancer vaccine for such a frequent and aggressive disease with a hitherto high unmet medical need. Feasibility, safety and biological efficacy will be evaluated in a randomized, controlled European multicenter phase I/II clinical trial.

The significance of low levels of LINC RP1130-1 expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma

“…The median survival rate for curative therapy remains approximately 50% for 5 years. Recent studies have sought to ascertain the mechanisms underlying the initiation, propagation, and development of HCC in order to identify potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets (10)(11)(12)(13). Important work is to identify novel biomarkers for early diagnosis and evaluation of the prognosis of patients with HCC.…”

Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine promotes epithelial–mesenchymal transition of hepatocellular carcinoma cells and acquisition of cancerstem cell phenotypes

“…There are multiple therapeutic modalities available for tumor treatment, including resection, radiofrequency ablation, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, and immunotherapy . Although surgical treatment and immunotherapies can help improve clinical outcome, the overall prognosis for HCC patients remains poor . In addition, numerous factors can affect the occurrence and development of liver cancer.…”

“…2,3 Although surgical treatment and immunotherapies can help improve clinical outcome, the overall prognosis for HCC patients remains poor. 4 In addition, numerous factors can affect the occurrence and development of liver cancer. Its high metastatic rate and invasiveness are important factors in patient mortality.…”

Immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers

“…Briefly, the HEPAVAC consortium is developing a multi-target/multi-epitope peptide vaccine based on common MHC class I and class II tumorassociated antigens expressed on HCC. Ideally, the vaccine will be used in a non-patient-specific manner with the option of a subsequent patient-specific vaccination (42). The HEPAVAC vaccine clinical trial was expected to start near the end of 2016.…”