Therapeutic vaccines for non-small cell lung cancer

New immunotherapy strategies could enable the development of therapeutic vaccines against certain cancers. In this Cochrane review, researchers assessed the efficacy and safety of different types of therapeutic vaccines in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. A total of 10 studies involving 2,177 participants were included. Compared with placebo, racotumomab could slightly increase overall survival, without any significant influence on progression-free survival or tolerability. Compared with docetaxel, racotumomab would be of little interest, increasing median survival by less than one month. The studies involved small sample sizes: 176 in the placebo-controlled study, 145 in the study comparing racotumomab with docetaxel.