Tracking Therapeutic & Preventive Cancer Immunotherapy Vaccines
Updated July 2026. Cancer vaccines represent a paradigm shift in oncology, harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. Unlike traditional vaccines that prevent infectious diseases, most cancer vaccines are therapeutic (treating existing cancer) rather than preventive. Two vaccines are FDA-approved: Provenge (sipuleucel-T) for prostate cancer and T-VEC (talimogene laherparepvec) for melanoma. The field has exploded with personalized mRNA vaccines tailored to individual tumors, neoantigen vaccines targeting tumor-specific mutations, and combinations with checkpoint inhibitors. BioNTech, Moderna, and Gritstone are leading personalized vaccine development for melanoma, pancreatic, and lung cancers. This tracker monitors both therapeutic vaccines (treating cancer) and preventive vaccines (like HPV vaccine preventing cervical cancer).