The concept of vaccination is well-validated in infectious diseases but the recent flurry of attempts to enlist the body's T-cells and antibodies to recognize and destroy cancer have not yet borne fruit. These cancer vaccines however have shown clinical promise against various guises of the terminal illness and importantly, do so without the debilitating side effects associated with many existing radio- and chemotherapies. The unmet medical need has created a highly competitive subgroup of oncology firms jockeying with each other and with regulatory authorities to bring these immunotherapies to market.
However worthwhile the cause, the road to approval of a cancer vaccine has proven to be an uphill one. Positive...