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Correspondence 2: Cancer vaccines: pessimism in check

Nature Medicine volume 10, page 1279 (2004)Cite this article

To the editor:

In a recent Perspective, Rosenberg and colleagues commented on the need to revise current strategies for therapeutic vaccination against cancer, given disappointing clinical response rates in recent trials1. Among 765 patients treated in 35 trials selected to be representative and encompassing of multiple cancer types (see Table 5 in ref. 1), the cumulative objective response rate was only 3.8%. In trials using poxviruses, peptides and modified tumor cells, clinical responses were seen in 0%, 4.0% and 4.2% of subjects, respectively, and tumor regressions were seen in 7.1% of patients receiving dendritic cell vaccines.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology & Oncology, CHS Room 42-121 University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, 90095-1678, California, USA

    John M Timmerman

  2. Division of Medical Oncology, CCSR Room 1105 Stanford University Medical Center, 269 Campus Drive, Stanford, 94305-5151, California, USA

    Ronald Levy

Authors
  1. John M Timmerman
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  2. Ronald Levy
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Timmerman, J., Levy, R. Correspondence 2: Cancer vaccines: pessimism in check. Nat Med 10, 1279 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1204-1279a

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