Integrating Cancer Vaccines in the Standard-of-Care of Ovarian Cancer: Translating Preclinical Models to Human

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The overall survival of ovarian cancer (OC) remains poor for most patients. Despite incorporation of novel therapeutic agents such as bevacizumab and PARP inhibitors to OC standard-of-care, efficacy is only observed in a subset of patients. Cancer vaccination has demonstrated effectiveness in OC patients and could be considered for potential incorporation into OC standard-of-care. This review provides an overview of the different types of cancer vaccination strategies and discusses the use of murine OC tumor models to evaluate combinatorial regimens comprising cancer vaccines and OC standard-of-care. ABSTRACT: As the majority of ovarian cancer (OC) patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease, less than 40% will survive past 5 years after diagnosis. OC is characterized by a succession of remissions and recurrences. The most promising time point for immunotherapeutic interventions in OC is following debulking surgery. Accumulating evidence shows that T cells are important in OC; thus, cancer vaccines capable of eliciting antitumor T cells will be effective in OC treatment. In this review, we discuss different cancer vaccines and propose strategies for their incorporation into the OC standard-of-care regimens. Using the murine ID8 ovarian tumor model, we provide evidence that a cancer vaccine can be effectively combined with OC standard-of-care to achieve greater overall efficacy. We demonstrate several important similarities between the ID8 model and OC patients, in terms of response to immunotherapies, and the ID8 model can be an important tool for evaluating combinatorial regimens and clinical trial designs in OC. Other emerging models, including patient-derived xenograft and genetically engineered mouse models, are continuing to improve and can be useful for evaluating cancer vaccination therapies in the near future. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the completed and current clinical trials evaluating cancer vaccines in OC.