Peptide vaccines — neoantigen vaccines, KRAS vaccines, multi-peptide cancer vaccines, and HLA-restricted peptide platforms — are one of the most active areas of late-stage oncology peptide work.
Lead programs covered on this site: ELI-002 amphiphile-peptide KRAS vaccine (AMPLIFY-201 Phase 3), autogene cevumeran from BioNTech and Genentech in pancreatic cancer, EVX-01 from Evaxion in melanoma, GP2 / GLSI-100 from Greenwich LifeSciences in HER2 breast cancer, ENA101 from Enara Bio, multipeptide vaccines from UCPVAX in glioblastoma, BioVaxys MVP-S (a five-peptide DPX-formulated survivin vaccine combined with pembrolizumab and cyclophosphamide in the PESCO Phase 1B/2 trial accepted for ASCO 2026 in recurrent ovarian cancer), and the Mel39 melanoma trial. Long-term survival data keeps mattering for the category.
Stories here cover trial readouts, AACR and ASCO presentations, and partnership announcements. See #neoantigen, #cancer-vaccine, and #immunotherapy for adjacent threads.
A 2026 Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology review of the personalized cancer vaccine pipeline counts 31 active peptide-vaccine trials — the most-used personalized vaccine platform — followed by dendritic-cell vaccines (15) and RNA vaccines (13). Phase 1 trials dominate the landscape (over 90% of studies), with US (44%) and China (24%) leading by registration count. Solid tumors (brain, pancreatic, breast) are the primary targets. Lead programs covered on this site that fit the framework: ELI-002 KRAS amphiphile vaccine (AMPLIFY-201), autogene cevumeran (BioNTech/Genentech) in pancreatic cancer, EVX-01 (Evaxion) in melanoma, GP2/GLSI-100 (Greenwich) in HER2 breast cancer, ENA101 (Enara), MVP-S (BioVaxys) in ovarian, and the multipeptide melanoma vaccination 20-year survival data.
BioVaxys announced April 27 that the abstract from the investigator-initiated PESCO trial — an open-label, non-randomized Phase 1B/2 study evaluating the company's MVP-S (maveropepimut-S) DPX-formulated peptide vaccine in combination with pembrolizumab and cyclophosphamide in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer — has been accepted for presentation at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (May 29–June 6). MVP-S is a five-peptide survivin-targeted formulation that pairs the peptides with a T-helper sequence and an innate-immune stimulant; the program tests whether the cytotoxic T-cell response can be combined effectively with checkpoint blockade in platinum-resistant disease.
Recent reviews and real-world observation studies aggregate the state of peptide-vaccine immunotherapy for glioblastoma. A 2024 Nature Communications real-world observational study reported clinically meaningful outcomes for personalized peptide vaccines; the UCPVax + temozolomide trial (NCT04280848) showed 97% anti-TERT immune response, 48% epitope spread, median OS 17.9 months, and 26% alive at 2 years. The peptide-vaccine modality is one of multiple approaches (mRNA, dendritic cell, neoantigen) advancing alongside immune checkpoint blockade.
Evaxion's AI-designed personalized neoantigen peptide vaccine EVX-01 combined with Keytruda produced a 75% objective response rate at 2 years in advanced melanoma patients, with 86% of vaccine targets triggering de novo T-cell responses. Data were presented April 22 at AACR 2026; 3-year follow-up expected in H2 2026. The 86% target-hit rate demonstrates AI-designed peptide neoantigen selection maturing for cancer vaccines.
Greenwich LifeSciences presented FLAMINGO-01 Phase III open-label data at AACR 2026 showing GLSI-100 (the 9-amino-acid GP2 HER2 peptide plus GM-CSF adjuvant) produced a ~4x increase in delayed-type hypersensitivity to GP2 across 247 non-HLA-A*02 patients — from 5.2% at baseline to 20.4% at months 4-6 (p<0.001). GP2 is the C-terminal transmembrane fragment of the HER2/neu protein.
BriaCell's Bria-IMT + checkpoint inhibitor combination preserved overall health status and key functional quality-of-life measures in its pivotal Phase 3 study in heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients who had failed ADC, CPI, and CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy. Phase 2 biomarker analyses identified mitotic circulating tumor cells as prognostic and PD-L1 in tumor-macrophage fusion cells as predictive of checkpoint benefit. Presented at AACR April 20.
A Phase 1 trial published in Nature Medicine showed that FLC-Vac, a therapeutic peptide vaccine targeting the DNAJ-PKAc fusion protein in fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, combined with nivolumab and ipilimumab achieved 75% disease control (9/12 patients) and 25% partial response rate. All responders showed tumor-specific T cell responses.
A randomized Phase I/II trial of a melanoma helper peptide vaccine with anti-CD27 antibody varlilumab reported 69% four-year disease-free survival in the combination arm versus 20% with vaccine alone. However, varlilumab depleted circulating CD4+ T cells, potentially limiting vaccine synergy and warranting further optimization.