Cancer Vaccines: Milestones, Promises, Opportunities, and Challenges

Author: Nancy Liu-Sullivan, PhD
Reviewers: Laurie Bjerklie, MA, MLS(ASCP)CM and Kanan Patel MBA, MLS(ASCP)
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Continuing Education Credits

P.A.C.E.® Contact Hours: 1 hour(s)

Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Science CE Credit Hours

Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Science CE - General (Serology/Immunology): 1 hour(s)

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This course covers milestones, promises, opportunities, and challenges of cancer vaccines in the world today, describing both preventive and therapeutic cancer vaccines in detail. Technology, current research, and development are covered.

Objectives

  • Describe the leading types of cancer vaccines.
  • Explain the mechanism of action of cancer vaccines.
  • Distinguish preventive from therapeutic cancer vaccines.
  • Explain the importance of cancer neoantigen(s) in designing personalized mRNA vaccines.
  • Discuss an awareness of the challenges of cancer vaccine efficacy.

Course Outline

  • Vaccine Overview
    • Vaccine Overview
    • Vaccine Overview: Summary by Vaccine Types
    • Vaccine Overview: Summary by Vaccine Types, continued
    • True or False: Live attenuated vaccines contain weakened forms of disease-causing germs.
    • True or False: Adenovirus vector-based vaccines are dangerous because there is a chance for people who have received the vaccine to suffer from adenoviral infection.
    • The mRNA vaccines are useful as:
  • Cancer Molecular Tricks to Escape Immune Surveillance
    • Cancer Molecular Tricks to Escape Immune Surveillance
    • True or False: Classical class I HLA is responsible for facilitating effective antigen presentation to activate Killer T cells.
    • True or False: Non-classical class I HLA are crucial for enabling NK cells to recognize cells that must be eliminated.
    • Cancer cells use three major molecular schemes to minimize the chance for them to be recognized by host immune cells. All of the following are potential schemes except:
  • Preventive Cancer Vaccines: Human Papillomavirus Vaccine
    • Human Papillomavirus Vaccine
    • HPV Vaccine: Mechanism of Action
    • HPV Vaccine: Efficacy
    • True or False: All three types of HPV vaccines cover HPV 16 and HPV 18.
    • True or False: The vaccine cross-protection phenomenon refers to immune protection going beyond the molecular targets targeted by the vaccine.
    • All of the following statements about HPV vaccine mechanisms of action are true, except:
  • Preventive Cancer Vaccines: Hepatitis B Virus Vaccine
    • Hepatitis B Virus Vaccine
    • True or False: The first generation of hepatitis B vaccine, based on carrier-derived blood plasma product, was replaced by a non-blood product out of concern for potential bloodborne pathogen concerns.
    • True or False: Aluminum hydroxide, Al(OH)3, was incorporated into the second-generation non-blood-based hepatitis B vaccine with the intent of making the vaccine more effective at producing a powerful immune response.
    • What is TWINRIX?
  • Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: A Tale of Three Vaccines
    • Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: A Tale of Three Vaccines
    • Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Prostate Cancer
    • Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Bladder Cancer
    • Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Melanoma
    • True or False: Sipeucel-T vaccine introduces prostatic acid phosphate (PAP) to patient-derived dendritic cells.
    • True or False: BCG is used to treat late-stage bladder cancer.
    • True or False: T-VEC is a therapeutic vaccine that treats late-stage melanoma.
    • In addition to cancer preventive vaccines, there are FDA-approved therapeutic cancer vaccines for cancer treatment. These include vaccines against all of the following, except:
  • Basics of Messenger RNA Technology
    • Basics of Messenger RNA Technology
    • True or False: The mRNA delivery challenge was solved with the innovative lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology, which protects mRNA from destruction by RNase.
    • True or False: Pseudouridine protects mRNA from nuclease destruction in addition to minimizing immunogenicity by the host immune system to remove and destroy exogenously introduced mRNA.
    • Why did mRNA vaccines that used modified nucleotides (such as pseudouridine) achieve higher efficacy compared to those using unmodified mRNA?
  • MRNA Cancer Vaccines: A Developing Story
    • mRNA Cancer Vaccines: Recap
    • mRNA Cancer Vaccines: A Developing Story
    • True or False: The mRNA cancer vaccine instructs dendritic cells to make cancer-specific neoantigens to train cytotoxic T cells (CTL) for the recognition and destruction of cancer cells.
    • True or False: The MSKCC-BioNTech pancreatic cancer vaccine successfully delayed tumor relapse by 18 months.
    • In the pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine study, why were neoantigens selected individually for each patient?
  • Cancer Vaccine Research and Development: Challenges and Opportunities
    • Cancer Vaccine Research and Development: Challenges and Opportunities
    • Summary
    • True or False: Malignant tumor cells are the only cells found in a tumor.
    • True or False: Cancer stem cells make cancer cells more aggressive in proliferation and metastasis.
    • Why is identifying cancer neoantigens particularly difficult?
  • References
    • References

Additional Information

Level of Instruction: Intermediate 
Intended Audience: Medical laboratory scientists, medical laboratory technicians, laboratory supervisors, and laboratory managers. This course is also appropriate for MLS and MLT students and pathology residents
Author Information: Dr. Nancy Liu-Sullivan served as a Senior Research Scientist with a specialty in cancer genomics and drug discovery prior to joining the biology faculty at the College of Staten Island (CSI), City University of New York (CUNY), teaching Immunology, Radiation Biology, and General Biology, in addition to mentoring students in cancer research. 
The author has no conflict of interest to disclose.
Reviewer Information: 
Laurie Bjerklie, MA, MLS(ASCP)CM, is a Lead Education Developer. She earned a B.S. in Medical Laboratory Science from the University of North Dakota and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Saint Xavier University. She has over 15 years of experience in higher education and has held program director and faculty positions in both MLT and MLS programs.
Kanan Patel oversees operations at the cell therapies manufacturing facility in Hackensack University Medical Center, NJ, serving as its manager. She holds a Bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Rutgers University, with a background spanning over 25 years in clinical and pathology laboratory operations and compliance. With nearly 4 years dedicated to the field of cellular therapies, her current role emphasizes managing cellular processing operations and educational opportunities for students.
Course Description: This course covers milestones, promises, opportunities, and challenges of cancer vaccines in the world today, describing both preventive and therapeutic cancer vaccines in detail. Technology, current research, and development are covered.