Integrating context of tumor biology and vaccine design to shape multidimensional immunotherapies

Abstract

Advances in cancer therapy have offered great promise but only modest clinical benefits as monotherapies to date. Patients usually respond well to therapies targeted at specific mutations, but only for a short time. Conversely, immunotherapies help fewer patients, but increase survival. Combination therapies, which could offer the best of both worlds, are currently limited by substantial toxicity. While recent advances in genomics and proteomics have yielded an unprecedented depth of enabling datasets, it has also shifted the focus toward  in silico predictions. Designing the next wave of multidimensional immunotherapies will require leveraging this knowledge while providing a renewed emphasis on tumor biology and vaccine design. This includes careful selection of tumor clinical stage in the context of pre-existing tumor microenvironments, target antigen and technology platform selections to maximize their effect, and treatment staging. Here, we review strategies on how to approach an increasingly complex landscape of immunotherapeutic agents for use in combination therapies.