HLA-A24 and survivin: possibilities in therapeutic vaccination against cancer.

Recently, it was described that an HLA-A24 restricted peptide derived from the survivin splice variant survivin-2B can be recognized by CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells. The identification of an HLA-A24 epitope is critical for survivin-based immunotherapy as HLA-24 is the most frequent HLA allele in Asia. Consequently, this survivin-2B epitope is already a target in a clinical study in patients with advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer expressing survivin.