Therapeutic targets for vaccination in polyomavirus‐driven Merkel cell carcinoma

Current Progress in Vaccines against Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Narrative Review and Update

“…Since phase 3 trials for vaccination studies in MCC are lacking, it will take several years before vaccines for the treatment of MCC can be licensed. However, it can be assumed that vaccines will become an important component in the treatment of skin cancers such as MCC in the future [8][9][10][11]51]. In principle, preventive vaccines as approved for cervical cancer prevention are conceivable for patients with MCPyV-positive MCCs and are under investigation in several laboratories [8,9,56].…”

“…However, it can be assumed that vaccines will become an important component in the treatment of skin cancers such as MCC in the future [8][9][10][11]51]. In principle, preventive vaccines as approved for cervical cancer prevention are conceivable for patients with MCPyV-positive MCCs and are under investigation in several laboratories [8,9,56]. For example, Imon et al recently designed and identify a potential peptide vaccine candidate against MCPyV by using computational approaches that can be further utilized for subsequent vaccine construction.…”

“…Consequently, vaccines have been developed and approved, for example, that are capable of preventing hepatitis B virus or human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and thus protecting against the development of the aforementioned virus-related cancers [1]. In this setting, when cancer has already developed, it is possible to identify targets for malignant cells that can aid in distinguishing tumor cells from healthy cells [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Especially interesting are tumor entities for which most patients express shared antigens.…”