Whether you’re researching a neoantigen, or you’re looking to identify new therapeutic candidates, you might be interested in a tool called “pVACview,” which is funded by NCI’s Informatics Technology for Cancer Research Program.

Neoantigen-based therapies offer a lot of promise for cancer treatment. But personalizing these approaches, so you can stimulate specific immune cells within a particular patient (at exactly the right time), remains a key challenge.

• The first paper describes pVACview and how it can help you find and compare neoantigen candidates for cancer immunotherapy. 
  • Using this interface, you can upload, explore, select, and export neoantigen candidates. Most importantly, you can use pVACview to not only predict and select neoantigen therapies, but to explore other types of data (e.g., genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic) that influence your neoantigen’s effectiveness.
• The second study puts pVACview into practice and describes the results of a newly completed phase 1 clinical trial. 
  • In this study, the researchers report on the safety and effectiveness of neoantigen DNA vaccines in breast cancer patients. You can see the steps the researchers took to design their vaccines, from identifying and confirming mutations, to selecting and prioritizing neoantigen candidates.