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The importance of the age factor in cancer vaccination at older age

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Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cancer is an age-related disease, and with the graying of the society there is an increasing need to optimize cancer management and therapy to elderly patients. Vaccine therapy for cancer is less toxic than chemotherapy or radiation and could be, therefore, especially effective in older, more frail cancer patients. However, it has been shown that older individuals do not respond to vaccine therapy as well as younger adults. This has been attributed to T cell unresponsiveness, a phenomenon also observed in cancer patients per se. Therefore, research is needed to establish whether age-specific tumor-immunological variables permit optimal use of cancer vaccines and therapy in the elderly. This review summarizes the current knowledge of T cell unresponsiveness in cancer patients and elderly, and the results of cancer vaccination in preclinical models at young and old age. Finally, new directions that may lead to effective cancer vaccination at older age will be proposed.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NIA grant 1RO1 AG023096-01, the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) A000106, and NCI grant 1R21CA129470-01A1.

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  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Forchheimer Bldg, Room 407A, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Claudia Gravekamp

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Correspondence to Claudia Gravekamp.

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This article is part of the Symposium in Writing on “Impact of Ageing on Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy”.

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Gravekamp, C. The importance of the age factor in cancer vaccination at older age. Cancer Immunol Immunother 58, 1969–1977 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-009-0683-x

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