Vaccine Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an aggressive malignancy associated with poor overall survival. There is a dire need for novel targeted agents to add to the armamentarium of therapeutics for this disease. Vaccines represent an important method to train the body’s own immune system to attack pancreatic cancer cells. Despite a number of unique targets on pancreatic cancer cells, vaccines have been largely ineffective at prolonging survival in pancreatic cancer patients due to poor immunogenicity and failure to translate an immune response into a clinical response. Numerous attempts have been made to augment vaccine administration using different vaccine constructs, adjuvants, growth factors, and chemotherapy combinations, but durable clinical benefit remains elusive. New vaccine combinations with checkpoint inhibitors offer hope of unleashing the full potential of vaccine therapy. We highlight the scientific rationale and clinical experience and discuss ongoing trials using pancreatic cancer vaccines.