More than a hundred years ago, the American pathologist Francis Peyton Rous carried out his experiments in which he showed for the first time that infection with viruses can cause cancer.

In chickens, the Rous sarcoma virus named after him causes tumors of the soft tissues.

Half a century later he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work.

His discovery not only suggested that cancer is a genetic disease of the cell, it also inspired the idea of ​​how to activate the immune system against viruses and against cancer. The body's own defense should offer itself as a well-tolerated therapy. The understanding of the immune system and the modes of action of its various components, which has grown over the last few decades, makes the goal of therapeutic vaccination, if not within reach, at least on the horizon as a further component of cancer therapy.

The immunologically effective treatments introduced in cancer therapy in recent years differ from the idea of ​​vaccination as a therapy. The immune system is reactivated against the degenerated tissue by administering specific antibodies, which specifically cancel out the defense strategies of the cancerous tissue with which it defends itself against the organism's immune system. In a number of tumor diseases, treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitors has a lasting effect.

These advances have given new impetus to research into the development of therapeutic vaccines.

Because they show that the immune system can effectively fight tumor cells.

However, only about fifteen percent of all tumor patients benefit from such treatment.

Tailored vaccination against the tumor tissue should be effective in many patients.

When vaccines against cancer are mentioned, it is important to distinguish prophylactic immunization against pathogens that have been shown to cause tumors - such as the human papilloma virus, cancer of the cervix - from therapy with vaccines against epitopes of cancer cells, for example to treat an existing disease - a real immunotherapy against cancer.

Neoantigens are optimal for vaccination

One of the protagonists of therapeutic vaccination is Hans-Georg Rsameee. The German immunologist and his team from the Department of Immunology at the Center for Cell Biology at the University of Tübingen have been looking for suitable target structures for a vaccination as part of a cluster of excellence. For his work on tumor vaccination, Rammenee was awarded the highly endowed research prize of the state of Baden-Württemberg last year.

On the surface of almost all cells of the organism there is a selection of peptides that reflect the spectrum of cellular proteins.

As fragments, they mark, as it were, the stock of proteins.

It is the human leukocyte antigens, the HLA molecules, that bind the peptides and present them on the surface.

There they are recognized by T cells, which in the event of the appearance of foreign, new epitopes, for example after a virus attack, kill a cell.

The T cells prove to be tolerant of the spectrum of normal peptides.

If, on the other hand, foreign, new epitopes are registered, the T cells are activated.