Cancer treatment vaccines have been in development since 2010, when the first was approved for prostate cancer, followed by another in 2015 for melanoma. While many therapeutic (rather than preventive) cancer vaccines have been researched since then, none have received approval. A major challenge in their development is identifying tumor antigens that are distinct enough from normal cells to trigger a strong immune response.
2025
New enzyme discovery could boost cancer immunotherapy
A new discovery from the University of Geneva highlights the crucial role of the CH25H enzyme, which is found in cancerous lymphatic cells. This enzyme plays a key part in activating immune cells, opening up a promising pathway for improving the success of cancer immunotherapies.
Novel ‘Gut-on-a-Chip’ Model Uncovers Biomarker for Immunotherapy in Melanoma
A team of researchers from the European Institute of Oncology and the Politecnico di Milano developed the novel “gut-on-a-chip”: a miniature model of the human intestine on a chip-sized device capable of reproducing the main features of intestinal inflammation as a biomarker for response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with melanoma.
Hargadon Publishes Cancer Research
Trinkle Professor of Biology Kristian M. Hargadon ’01 and two alumni co-authors published research on anti-tumor immune dysfunction in Cancer Reports.