Cancer immunotherapy: phase II clinical studies with TG4010 (MVA-MUC1-IL2).

Vaccines are well known in the context of prevention of diseases caused by infectious agents. Current research is now aimed at using vaccines to manipulate the immune system to eliminate established diseases, including cancer. Several such immunotherapeutic vaccines are now in clinical trials and are beginning to show clinical benefit. TG4010 is one such vaccine. It incorporates the MUC1 antigen, which is overexpressed in the majority of cancers, into a non-propagative pox viral vector, MVA. A second gene, interleukin-2 is also incorporated into TG4010 as an immune stimulus. The vaccine has been tested in breast, kidney, prostate and lung cancers with encouraging results.