What are cancer vaccines?

Vaccines are a type of immunotherapy. Research in this area is at an early stage. The vaccines are made to recognise proteins that are on particular cancer cells. This helps the immune system to recognise and mount an attack against those particular cancer cells. These vaccines might help to:

• stop further growth of a cancer
• prevent cancer from coming back
• destroy any cancer cells left behind after other treatments

Types
The following types of cancer vaccines are most commonly under investigation throughout the world:

Antigen vaccines
These vaccines are made from special proteins (antigens) in cancer cells. They aim to stimulate your immune system to attack cancer.

Whole cell vaccines
A whole cell vaccine uses the whole cancer cell, not just a specific cell protein (antigen), to make the vaccine.

Dendritic cell vaccines
Dendritic cells help the immune system recognise and attack abnormal cells, such as cancer cells.

DNA vaccines
These vaccines are made with bits of DNA from cancer cells. They can be injected into the body to make the cells of the immune system better at responding to and destroying cancer cells.

Anti-idiotype vaccines
This vaccine stimulates the body to make antibodies against cancer cells.