Personalized Cancer Vaccines Advance in the Clinic

More than a century ago, New York surgeon William Coley, M.D., proposed treating cancer with vaccines that turn the immune system against malignant cells (Am. J. Med. Sci. 1893;105:487–510). That was a new concept because clinicians usually give vaccines to prevent diseases, not treat the ones patients already have. Scientists have been trying to generate cancer vaccines ever since, but with limited success. Tumors throw up defenses to evade the immune system, and T cells—the vaccine-triggered immune cells that kill invaders in the body—often can't distinguish cancerous cells from normal ones.

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