JAMA   
June 8, 2011, Vol 305, No. 22, pp 2257-2368
http://jama.ama-assn.org/current.dtl

Commentaries
A Strategic Approach to Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines in the 21st Century
Matthew M. Davis, Elias J. Dayoub
JAMA. 2011;305(22):2343-2344.doi:10.1001/jama.2011.814

Extract: First 150 words
Prophylactic vaccines have forever reduced the burden of disease in the United States and around the world. 1 One of the critical keys to success for prophylactic vaccines was that scientists set their sights on high-burden infectious diseases—frequently with high incidence, and often with high rates of mortality and morbidity and minimally effective therapeutic options at the time vaccines were developed.

Now, in the midst of a golden era of continuing prophylactic vaccine successes, 2 therapeutic vaccines for cancer are being developed. Currently available treatments with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy help about 2 of every 3 patients diagnosed with cancer survive for at least 5 years in the United States, 3 but many of those patients experience treatment complications and morbidities that reduce their quality of life. Therapeutic vaccines that trigger individuals’ targeted immune response against tumor-specific antigens and tumor-associated antigens may offer patients with cancer dual benefits of …