Delivery strategies for cancer vaccines and immunoadjuvants

Cancer vaccines have contributed significantly to immune-based treatment for this devastating disease. As the field has evolved, these therapies need enhanced delivery to better elicit protective immunity and overcome the suppressive tumor environment. In this chapter, we discuss current and new formulation approaches for cancer antigens and adjuvants that have been evaluated at the clinical and preclinical level. These vaccine platforms can be based on lipids, polymers, and inorganic materials, with a variety of constructs from particles to scaffolds to microneedles. The vaccine platforms reviewed show great promise in clinical and preclinical models and often rely on codelivery with checkpoint inhibitors to have the greatest effect. Furthermore, the inclusion of multiple antigens in combination with an adjuvant or GM-CSF has led to great advances. Overall, the reviewed platforms illustrate great progress in the field of cancer vaccines and provide hope for development of robust immune-based therapies.