It is important to distinguish vaccines designed to prevent cancer from those designed to
treat cancer. The mode of action of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine for the
prevention of cervical and other HPV-associated malignancies is similar to that of vaccines
for the prevention of infectious disease (ie, the induction of antibodies directed against
essential components of the microbe). Even though there have been stunning successes in
the area of preventive vaccines, the history of therapeutic cancer vaccines, which principally …