PSA-based vaccines for the treatment of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men in the USA. Vaccine strategies represent a novel therapeutic approach. One potential target for a prostate cancer vaccine is prostate-specific antigen, owing to its restricted expression in prostate cancer and normal prostatic epithelial cells. A number of prostate-specific antigen-specific epitopes have been identified that can activate cytotoxic T lymphocytes and, in turn, result in the killing of tumor targets by the peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Strategies employed in clinical trials consist of dendritic cell vaccines, recombinant protein and recombinant DNA vaccines, as well as viral vector delivery of vaccines. New approaches incorporating a combination of a vaccine with traditional treatments for prostate cancer are also being investigated.