Personalized Neoantigen Vaccines: Dendritic Cells, mRNA, and Peptides Advance Cancer Immunotherapy via Rational Combinations

Cancer immunotherapy faces significant hurdles, with limited efficacy hindering the widespread clinical translation of therapeutic vaccines. Despite advancements, Sipuleucel-T remains the sole FDA-approved therapeutic cancer vaccine, underscoring a critical gap. Current neoantigen prediction strategies for peptide vaccines often yield low immune response rates, with only 10-20% of selected peptides inducing responses in patients. This highlights a pressing need for more effective antigen selection and delivery methods. Personalized vaccines, by targeting patient-specific neoantigens, offer a promising strategy to overcome these limitations and optimize immune responses, particularly by leveraging platforms like peptide, mRNA, and dendritic cell (DC) vaccines to induce potent antitumor T-cell responses.