Editing Cancer vaccine (section)

== Antigen candidates ==
[[Tumor antigen]]s have been divided into two categories: ''shared'' tumor antigens; and ''unique'' tumor antigens. Shared antigens are expressed by many tumors. Unique tumor antigens result from mutations induced through physical or chemical carcinogens; they are therefore expressed only by individual tumors.

In one approach, vaccines contain whole tumor cells, though these vaccines have been less effective in eliciting immune responses in spontaneous cancer models. Defined tumor antigens decrease the risk of autoimmunity, but because the immune response is directed to a single [[epitope]], tumors can evade destruction through antigen loss variance. A process called "epitope spreading" or "provoked immunity" may mitigate this weakness, as sometimes an immune response to a single antigen can lead to immunity against other antigens on the same tumor.<ref name="Pejawar-Gaddy S 2008"/>

For example, since [[Hsp70]] plays an important role in the [[Antigen presentation|presentation of antigens]] of destroyed cells including cancer cells,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Nishikawa M, Takemoto S, Takakura Y | title = Heat shock protein derivatives for delivery of antigens to antigen presenting cells | journal = International Journal of Pharmaceutics | volume = 354 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 23–27 | date = April 2008 | pmid = 17980980 | doi = 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2007.09.030 | series = Special Issue in Honor of Prof. Tsuneji Nagai }}</ref> this protein may be used as an effective adjuvant in the development of antitumor vaccines.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Savvateeva LV, Schwartz AM, Gorshkova LB, Gorokhovets NV, Makarov VA, Reddy VP, Aliev G, Zamyatnin AA | display-authors = 6 | title = Prophylactic Admission of an In Vitro Reconstructed Complexes of Human Recombinant Heat Shock Proteins and Melanoma Antigenic Peptides Activates Anti-Melanoma Responses in Mice | journal = Current Molecular Medicine | volume = 15 | issue = 5 | pages = 462–468 | date = 2015-01-01 | pmid = 26122656 | doi = 10.2174/1566524015666150630125024 }}</ref>