Current challenges for cancer vaccine adjuvant development

Poor immunogenicity of tumor antigens and tumor immune evasion mechanisms make the design of cancer vaccines challenging. Growing understanding of the tumor microenvironment and associated immune responses indicate the importance of augmenting not only the effector response, but also overcoming the endogenous regulatory response and tumor evasion mechanisms. Therefore, new vaccines will benefit from multi-adjuvanted approaches that simultaneously stimulate immunity while preventing inhibition.