Peptide-based immunotherapy in multiple myeloma

Abstract

The modifications of the immune system with immunomodulatory drugs or monoclonal antibodies are still insufficient to obtain long-lasting complete remissions in most of the multiple myeloma patients (MM). Peptide-based immunotherapy combined with an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, immunomodulatory drugs or monoclonal antibodies might represent novel therapeutic strategies, that might retain immune control on disease development and progression resulting in prolonged overall survival. New epitopes derived from tumor-associated antigens (TAA), that are able to induce strong and long-term immune response against MM cells are under investigation. Peptide modifications or targeting multiple epitopes on MM cells could efficiently induce stronger immune response in comparison with single and natural antigens. In this work we have summarized the results of latest studies regarding characterization of TAA that could be used as targets for peptide-based immunotherapy as well as clinical trials utilizing peptide immunotherapy in MM.