RETRACTED CHAPTER: Lymphoma Vaccines: Background and Perspectives

Cancer immunotherapy is most promising in treatment combinations that complement each other to set the “cancer immunity cycle” in motion. In this context, therapeutic vaccination, in spite of all previous failures, receives persistent attention. It aims primarily at the induction of anti-tumor T-cell responses and promises sustainable effects by highly sensitive and specific effectors. Technical progress allows to identify in individual patients targetable tumor-specific antigens in short time. Antigen formats such as mRNA and synthetic long peptides are rather easy to produce and to handle. They are increasingly applied to customized vaccine production in various diseases. Lymphoma vaccination is still in a learning and developing phase and will profit from these new developments. Among candidate target antigens, the lymphoma-specific immunoglobulin, named idiotype, is still in the front row of interest due to its oncogenic function, stable expression, and multiple recurrent mutation sites to produce neoepitopes in the majority of patients, which facilitates and fosters the development of a personalized vaccine approach. Carefully crafted phase I/II trials with adaptive and integrative study designs constantly building on preexisting preclinical and clinical findings will be instrumental to optimize vaccination protocols, break immune tolerance, overcome escape mechanisms, and address advantageous sequencing of vaccination with other treatment modalities.