Construction strategies of whole tumor cell vaccines

Whole tumor cell vaccines (WTCVs), which utilize the entire tumor antigen repertoire to elicit robust and personalized anti-tumor immunity, have emerged as a promising strategy to overcome tumor heterogeneity and immune evasion. However, the development of WTCVs has very limited benefits in the clinical setting. This paper systematically reviews the cutting-edge construction strategies of WTCVs including dead tumor cell-based vaccines and engineered living tumor cell-based vaccines with a particular focus on the impact of structural integrity on the immune response of WTCVs. Moreover, current challenges and prospects are also discussed, aiming to achieve better therapeutic efficacy by fabricating WTCVs with great biosafety and strong immunogenicity, hoping to promote the clinical translation of WTCVs.