Cholangiocarcinoma Vaccines

Creative Biolabs is a world leader in the field of cancer vaccine development. With our extensive experience and advanced platform, we are therefore confident in offering the best services for vaccine development against cholangiocarcinoma and guarantee the finest results for our customers all over the world.

Cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a type of cancer consisting of a mutant epithelial cell (or a cell that exhibits epithelial differentiation). Cholangiocarcinoma originates in the bile ducts that excrete bile from the liver into the small intestine. Other biliary tract cancers include cancer of the ampulla of Vater and gallbladder cancer. Cholangiocarcinoma is a relatively rare tumor that is classified as adenocarcinoma (a cancer that forms glands or secretes large amounts of mucins). The obvious signs and symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma include jaundice, abdominal pain, abnormal liver function tests and weight loss. Other symptoms include fever, systemic itching, urine or stool color changes. The disease is diagnosed by a combination of blood tests, imaging tests, endoscopy and sometimes surgical exploration. Pathologists then confirme the tumor cells under the microscope.

Since primary tumors and any metastases are less likely to be fully removed by surgery, cholangiocarcinoma is considered to be an incurable and rapidly fatal cancer. There is no potential curative treatment other than surgery. Most patients present with advanced stage disease at the time of diagnosis and are therefore unable to operate. Patients with cholangiocarcinoma are usually treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and other palliative care measures. These are also used as additional treatments in the case of successful surgeries.

Therapeutic Vaccines for Cholangiocarcinoma

Recently, several clinical trials of immunotherapies, including peptide-based vaccines and dendritic cell-based vaccines, have been reported with promising results. The field of cancer immunotherapy has drastically moved forward during these two decades since the first discovery of a tumor-associated antigen (TAA) recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Advancement of molecular biological and immunological techniques has helped identify a large number of TAAs and peptide epitopes applicable as cancer immunotherapies. For example, BTC has been reported to express a variety of TAAs, such as Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT1), mucin 1 (MUC1) and mutated K-RAS, as potential targets for immunotherapies. Several clinical trials of immunotherapies targeting these molecules have recently been reported with promising results.

The anti-tumor immunity might differ widely among individual cancer patients, since the tumor cell characteristics and the host immune cell repertoires are reported to be quite diverse and heterogeneous among patients, even among those with identical HLA types and the same pathological types of cancer. Considering the diversity of immune responses against heterogeneous tumor cells, tailored selections of vaccine antigens appropriate for individual patients could be a rational approach for developing effective cancer vaccines. A novel immunotherapeutic approach called personalized peptide vaccine (PPV) has been developed, in which HLA-matched vaccine peptides are selected for vaccination based on the preexisting host immunity from a list of vaccine candidates.

Creative Biolabs is a leader in the field of vaccine development and has focused on the cancer vaccines for years. We have experts who are able to help you with the development of the cholangiocarcinoma vaccines. If you are interested in our services, please contact us for more details.

Reference

1. Takahashi, R. (2013). “Current status of immunotherapy for the treatment of biliary tract cancer.” Hum Vaccin Immunother 9(5), 1069-1072.

All of our products can only be used for research purposes. These vaccine ingredients CANNOT be used directly on humans or animals.