Leukemia vaccines.

Leukemia is susceptible to immune-mediated therapies such as allogeneic stem-cell transplantation, donor lymphocyte infusion, and interferon. The clinical effectiveness of these immune-based modalities has encouraged interest in vaccine therapies for leukemia. Substantial progress has recently been made in basic immunology, allowing scientifically based vaccination strategies to be developed. The discovery of leukemia- specific and leukemia-associated antigens will allow antigen-specific therapeutic strategies to be developed. Vaccination with genetically modified leukemia cells and the use of dendritic cells in various vaccination approaches are all promising avenues of study for development of effective leukemia vaccines.