Rethinking Antigen Source: Cancer Vaccines Based on Whole Tumor Cell/tissue Lysate or Whole Tumor Cell

Cancer immunotherapies have improved human health, and one among the important technologies for cancer immunotherapy is cancer vaccine. Antigens are the most important components in cancer vaccines. Generally, antigens in cancer vaccines can be divided into two categories: pre-defined antigens and unidentified antigens. Although, cancer vaccines loaded with predefined antigens are commonly used, cancer vaccine loaded with mixed unidentified antigens, especially whole cancer cells or cancer cell lysates, is a very promising approach, and such vaccine can obviate some limitations in cancer vaccines. Their advantages include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of pan-spectra (all or most kinds of) antigens, inducing pan-clones specific T cells, and overcoming the heterogeneity of cancer cells. In this review, the recent advances in cancer vaccines based on whole-tumor antigens, either based on whole cancer cells or whole cancer cell lysates, are summarized. In terms of whole cancer cell lysates, the focus is on applying whole water-soluble cell lysates as antigens. Recently, utilizing the whole cancer cell lysates as antigens in cancer vaccines has become feasible. Considering that pre-determined antigen-based cancer vaccines (mainly peptide-based or mRNA-based) have various limitations, developing cancer vaccines based on whole-tumor antigens is a promising alternative.