Cancer treatment by comprehensive regulation of anti-tumor immune network

Anti-tumor effects of current cancer vaccines are limited. However, detailed analyses of clinical trials revealed several important points to be improved towards immunological tumor rejection. These are, (1) identification of tumor antigens involved in tumor cell proliferation/survival and expressed in cancer stem cells, (2) development of in situ tumor destruction methods which release tumor antigens in an immunogenic manner to induce immune responses to multiple endogenous tumor antigens, (3) development of methods to augment antigen processing and presentation by dendritic cells, including effective adjuvants, (4) development of methods to expand CTL and helper T cells in vivo, (5) understanding of mechanisms underlying cancer induced immunosuppression and development of methods to overcome them. Comprehensive interventions on these points in the antitumor immune network will lead to effective cancer immunotherapy.