Heat shock proteins and their use as anticancer vaccines.

Despite the improvement in the outcome of anticancer therapy achieved during the last few years, several metastatic tumors remain resistant to therapy. This is particularly true for metastatic melanoma, renal and lung carcinoma, and, although to a lesser extent, for colorectal carcinoma. For these tumors, several biological therapies have been proposed, including vaccination by a variety of approaches. Over the past decade, it has become increasingly apparent that the host immune system can recognize and destroy cancer cells, although this will only rarely translate into a significant clinical benefit. Consequently, antitumor therapies have focused on exploiting the immune response in an attempt to increase its strength and specificity to better control the disease.