Vaccination approach to anti-angiogenic treatment of cancer

Improvement of patient survival by anti-angiogenic therapy has proven limited. A vaccination approach inducing an immune response against the tumor vasculature combines the benefits of immunotherapy and anti-angiogenesis, and may overcome the limitations of current anti-angiogenic drugs. Strategies to use whole endothelial cell vaccines and DNA- or protein vaccines against key players in the VEGF signaling axis, as well as specific markers of tumor endothelial cells, have been tested in preclinical studies. Current clinical trials are now testing the promise of this specific anti-cancer vaccination approach. This review will highlight the state-of-the-art in this exciting field of cancer research. •Anti-angiogenic drugs have immunomodulatory abilities which benefits immunotherapy.•Targeting angiogenesis by vaccination may be superior to currently applied agents.•Vaccination strategies against different angiogenic players have been employed.•The promise of this treatment strategy has been shown in the first clinical trials.•Combination with conventional cancer treatments will improve this field of research.