Human tumor vaccines and genetic engineering of tumors with cytokine and histocompatibility genes to enhance immunogenicity

Genetically engineered tumor cells can be used as vaccines in order to stimulate an immune response. To date, tumor cells have been modified in vitro so that they secrete cytokines or express histocompatibility molecules that they naturally fail to express. These tumor cells differ in the types of immune responses they induce and in whether the responses have local or systemic efficacy. Many questions have been raised during the past year, including whether allogeneic or autologous tumor cells should be employed and whether there may be a risk of inducing autoimmune disease along with the antitumor response. Nevertheless, because of the paucity of available therapies for patients with advanced cancer, investigators must attempt to refine the approaches used in order to minimize patient risk while maximizing tumor cell destruction.