Tenth international conference on progress in vaccination against cancer (PIVAC 10), Cambridge, UK, 27th-30th September 2010: new hopes and strategies for cancer vaccines.

The Progress in Vaccination against Cancer (PIVAC) series of conferences celebrated 10 years of existence by returning to Cambridge, where the first meeting was held in the year 2001. This year, the conference at St Catharine's college was full of hope for the future of immunotherapy against cancer with the introduction of prophylactic vaccines, combination therapies and the use of genetic vaccination (DNA vaccines) using old or new antigens vaccine formulations combined with the stimulation of innate immunity, the use of Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists and inhibition of checkpoint blockade to overcome the immunosuppression created by the tumour microenvironment, offer exciting possibilities and new strategies. Indeed, enthusiasm is running high amongst immunologists who are working to eradicate cancers following the recent completion of several large scale, randomized phase III trials that have reported positive clinical results. The time when one will be able to immunize patients with minimal or no measurable disease is therefore getting closer as we understand more about the host--tumour relationship that influences regulatory immune pathways.