cancer vaccine

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a biological preparation designed to stimulate the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells, either by preventing cancer development — prophylactic vaccines — or by treating existing cancer by activating immune responses against tumour antigens — therapeutic vaccines; prophylactic cancer vaccines include the human papillomavirus vaccines that prevent infection with high-risk HPV strains responsible for cervical, oropharyngeal, and other cancers, and the hepatitis B vaccine that prevents infection leading to hepatocellular carcinoma; therapeutic cancer vaccines aim to present tumour antigens in a format that activates cytotoxic T-cells capable of killing cancer cells, and include personalised neoantigen vaccines that target the unique mutational profile of an individual patient's tumour; the success of mRNA vaccine technology during the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated development of mRNA-based personalised cancer vaccines, with early clinical data suggesting promising responses in melanoma, pancreatic cancer, and other tumour types when combined with checkpoint inhibitors