Therapeutic gastric cancer vaccines: From specific immune reactions to different types of vaccines' development

Gastric cancer ranks among the most prevalent malignant tumors globally. Presently, diverse treatment approaches for advanced gastric cancer fall short of achieving satisfactory survival rates, therefore, developing new treatment methods is particularly urgent. Over the last decade, the rapid progress in immunotherapy has brought fresh hope for gastric cancer patients, notably with tumor vaccine therapy emerging as a promising player in this domain. Vaccine therapy can stimulate an increase in specific lymphocytes, eliciting a robust immune response against tumor antigens. This review introduces different types of tumor antigens and summarizes the current status of therapeutic gastric cancer vaccines, including protein/peptide vaccines, gene vaccines, cell vaccines, and vector vaccines. The research outcomes of relevant basic or clinical trials are particularly emphasized. Lastly, the challenges and potential development directions for personalized gastric cancer vaccines are discussed.