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Tokuyasu et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2018;4:2 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2017.52 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

A primer on recent developments in cancer
immunotherapy, with a focus on neoantigen
vaccines

Taku A. Tokuyasu , Jian-Dong Huang 1,2,3
1
1 Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055,
Guangdong, China.
2 School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
3 Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

Correspondence to: Dr. Taku A. Tokuyasu, Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China. E-mail: tokbio@fastmail.fm

How to cite this article: Tokuyasu TA, Huang JD. A primer on recent developments in cancer immunotherapy, with a focus on neoantigen
vaccines. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2018;4:2. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2017.52

Received: 8 Aug 2017 First Decision: 18 Oct 2017 Revised: 11 Dec 2017 Accepted: 11 Dec 2017 Published: 18 Jan 2018
Science Editor: Shuen-Kuei Liao Copy Editor: Lu Liu Production Editor: Huan-Liang Wu

Abstract
Cancer immunotherapy has now been conclusively shown to be capable of producing durable responses for a substantial
number of patients. Adoptive cell transfer and checkpoint blockade therapies in particular both demonstrate that
antigen-specific immune responses can be dramatically effective, even in previously refractory late stage disease. Such
developments, together with advances in technology, have strongly encouraged revisiting the concept of neoantigen
vaccines. Here we introduce basic ideas in the field to allow investigators from diverse backgrounds to understand these
developments, grasp current issues, and contribute to further progress.

Keywords: Immunotherapy, cancer vaccine, immunoinformatics, precision medicine, combination therapy, theoretical
models, systems biology

INTRODUCTION
[1]
In the late 1800s, Coley pursued investigations of cancer regression in the context of bacterial disease.
It has been clear since then that the immune system plays an important role in cancer. Over the ensuing
century, strong arguments were put forward for both why cancer immunotherapy should work and why it
[2]
should not, occasionally by the same investigator . The past decade has seen dramatic progress in cancer
immunotherapies, such as checkpoint blockade, adoptive cell transfer, and vaccines. The success came on

© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
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and indicate if changes were made.

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