Eric Van Hofe PhD

Eric von Hofe, president and CEO of Antigen Express, a cancer vaccine biotechnology company: “We’re not going to replace chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, but in 5 to 10 years, vaccines will be much more an accepted part of clinical oncology.” Cancer vaccines require rethinking the term “vaccine.” Most patients are familiar with vaccines given to healthy people to prevent bacterial or viral infections, such as diptheria and mumps. These traditional vaccines require using weakened or killed viruses, bacteria, or other germs to trigger an immune response in the body via activation of B cells and killer T cells. Although some cancer vaccines work in this fashion and are for prophylactic purposes, others are used as a therapeutic, to retrain the immune system to attack a disease that already exists (e.g., Provenge for prostate cancer). Therapeutic vaccines use cancer cells, parts of cells, or pure antigens—sometimes from the individual patient—in combination with other substances called adjuvants to further boost the immune response. Thus these vaccines all fall under the umbrella of immunotherapy.