Vaccines In Cancer

We all are aiming and waiting for the day when one can get vaccinated against cancer!

Vaccines can be of two types prophylactic and therapeutic. Prophylactic ones have been developed for few cancers.
Hepatitis B vaccine is predominantly encouraged to prevent oneself from Hepatocellular cancer. This has helped in keeping the rate of liver cancer in check. Liver cancer is a leading problem in China, Taiwan, India etc. In US, hepatitis C infection is expected to create a huge burden of liver cancer in baby boomers. Efforts are on to bring better therapy for hepatitis c.
Another vaccine which has the potential to make an impact is HPV vaccine. HPV vaccines from GSK and Merck are expected to decrease the incidence of cervical carcinoma. There are many types of HPV virus and these vaccines take care of HPV 16, 18. The immunity against these is expected to help fight against other HPV's also. Vaccinated or not, it is highly recommended to get oneself screened for cervical carcinoma.

Provenge, sipuleucel-T, for prostate cancer is a successful therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer used in metastatic setting.

There are plenty of therapeutic vaccines in clinical trials for lung cancer, head and neck cancer, brain cancer, melanoma.

Next few years are interesting but none of the vaccines are any near to cure.

Reference: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/cancer-vaccines