Plant-Made Vaccines in the Fight Against Cancer

Abstract

Immunotherapies constitute an important trend in developing new cancer treatments, and several promising candidates are under evaluation in clinical trials. Plants have entered the fight against cancer because they constitute low-cost and efficient hosts for biopharmaceutical production that can also serve as oral delivery vehicles. This review is focused on the knowledge gained through the development of anticancer plant-made vaccines reported thus far, and highlights the potential of this technology - its success being reflected in the number of candidates that are close to market. Future prospects for anticancer plant-made vaccines are also identified.

Keywords: anti-idiotype antibodies; immunotherapies; malignances; parenteral delivery; subunit vaccines; tumor-associated antigen.