Dear Colleagues,

As you may know, the race to develop vaccines to treat or prevent cancers started in the 1980s when Hoover and colleagues [Cancer. 1985;55(6):1236–43] used autologous colorectal cancer cells in combination with surgical intervention in an attempt to control advanced colorectal cancer in twenty patients. This was followed by the groundbreaking discovery of melanoma-associated antigen 1 [Science. 1991;254(5038):1643–7], which has given way to the development of a vaccine targeting this specific antigen. Just during the last decade, attempts to use dendritic cell-based vaccines were successful in the development of anti-prostate-cancer vaccines [Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2012;8(4):534–9]. Lastly, the recent advances in mRNA vaccines, especially during the COVID-19 era, have opened up many opportunities to expand the knowledge and practice of using mRNA vaccines for therapeutic purposes in some cancers. Excitingly, mRNA vaccines have numerous advantages over other forms of vaccines, including their non-integration in the host genome, inability to infect the host, capability to elicit humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, and finally, their relatively low production cost.

Not only can vaccines target cancer cells, but within the era of COVID-19, some researchers have noticed tumor progression or regression when receiving mRNA Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. This has opened doors for further research into the interplay between mRNA vaccines, immunity, and the clinical course of various cancers.

We are, therefore, pleased to invite you to submit your research work related to cancer vaccines and the effects of vaccines on cancer immunology to this Special Issue. This Special Issue is intended to highlight recent advances in this field, regardless of the study design. We hope your contributions to this Special Issue will further shape the new field of cancer vaccine immunology.

This Special Issue aims to address the knowledge gap in the uses, mechanisms, efficacy, and adverse events of the developed or still-in-development vaccines for preventive and/or therapeutic uses in cancer; or non-cancer vaccines affecting cancer immunology or prognosis.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Cancer vaccines in clinical practice
• Cancer vaccine basic science and immunology
• The effect of non-cancer vaccines on the clinical course of cancers

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Abdelrahman Makram
Dr. Nguyen Tien Huy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• mRNA vaccines
• cancer vaccines
• cancer immunology