The clinical experience of cancer vaccines for malignant melanoma

Much effort has been made to improve systemic treatment of advanced melanoma. However, clinically meaningful prolongation of survival in patients with metastatic melanoma remains elusive. Anecdotal reports of spontaneous cancer regressions as well as durable remissions following immune modulating therapies (e.g. interleukin-2, interferon alpha, anti-CTLA4) continue to support the effort and hope that effective immune therapy of melanoma is an achievable goal. One approach in this effort has been the attempt to improve immune destruction of melanoma through active immunotherapy via vaccination against melanoma antigens. A broad range of strategies have been employed, from single peptide vaccinations to injections of modified dendritic cells; many of these vaccines have been tested in clinical trials in melanoma patients. Herein, we review the breadth of clinical trials conducted to date using vaccine based therapy of melanoma.