Innovations in cancer treatment as novel potential and the myth of personalized vaccines, immunotherapy, CRISPR/Cas9, and bacteriotherapy as promising therapeutic strategies

Sep 28, 2026

Recent advancements in cancer treatment, including targeted therapy, tailored vaccines, immunotherapy, and bacteriotherapy, show strong promise against multiple cancer types. The field still faces obstacles such as toxicity to healthy tissues, limited penetration into malignant tumors, and tumor resistance to drugs. This review evaluates tailored vaccinations, immunotherapy, CRISPR/Cas9, and bacteriotherapy using major clinical trial and biomedical databases. It highlights personalized vaccines targeting patient neoantigens, variable immunotherapy benefits, bacteriotherapy’s effects on remission and metastasis, and CRISPR’s emerging role in tumor-level genetic targeting.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Zubair and Wdidi Discover Oncology (2025) 16:2343 [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12672-025-04188-2](https://doi.org/10.1007/s12672-025-04188-2) Discover Oncology REVIEW Open Access Innovations in cancer treatment as novel potential and the myth of personalized vaccines, immunotherapy, CRISPR/Cas9, and bacteriotherapy as promising therapeutic strategies Akmal Zubair 1 and Safa Wdidi2* *Correspondence: Safa Wdidi[safaahmedwdidi@gmail.com](safaahmedwdidi@gmail.com)[ ](safaahmedwdidi@gmail.com)1Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan 2Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science, Oncology Research Center, University of Shendi, Khartoum, Sudan Abstract Recent advancements in cancer treatment, including targeted therapy, tailored vaccines, immunotherapy, and bacteriotherapy, have demonstrated remarkable potential in addressing various types of cancer. However, the pursuit of novel therapeutic strategies remains challenged by significant obstacles, including toxicity to healthy tissues, limited penetration into malignant tissues, and the potential for tumor cell resistance to pharmacological agents. This study explored the potential of tailored vaccinations, immunotherapy, CRISPR/Cas9, and bacteriotherapy for cancer treatment. Randomized and non-randomized studies were reviewed using the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed (NCBI), Scopus (ELSEVIER), and Web of Science (CLAVIRATE) databases. This research highlights the promising use of personalized cancer vaccines, which induce tumor-specific immune responses targeting neoantigens unique to each patient. Immunotherapy, which enhances the ability of the immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells, has revitalized tumor immunology. While the effectiveness of immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and adoptive cell transfer (ACT), is variable, certain cancer patients show substantial benefits. Bacteriotherapy has also proven effective in promoting tumor remission and inhibiting metastasis, either alone orin combination with conventional treatments, by reducing tumor proliferation and metastasis. Additionally, bacteriotherapy serves as a potential platform for delivering therapeutics, genes, or medications directly to tumors. The CRISPR-Cas9 genomeediting technique shows promise for advancing cancer treatment, with the potential to target and treat genetic mutations at the tumor level, although its application inhuman cancer therapy is still under development. This study highlights the potential of these innovative approaches in the fight against cancer. Keywords Adoptive cell transfer (ACT), CRISPR/Cas9, Cancer treatment, Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), Immunotherapy, Personalized cancer therapy © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. 1 Introduction The 2023 cancer statistics report released by the American Cancer Society revealed a substantial 33% redu

FAQs

What main challenges limit novel cancer therapies addressed in the review?

The review highlights toxicity to healthy tissues, limited penetration into malignant tissues, and possible tumor cell resistance to pharmacological agents.

How do personalized cancer vaccines work according to the document?

They induce tumor-specific immune responses by targeting neoantigens unique to each patient.

What evidence and mechanisms are discussed for bacteriotherapy in cancer treatment?

Bacteriotherapy is described as promoting tumor remission and inhibiting metastasis, either alone or alongside conventional treatments, and as a platform for delivering therapeutics, genes, or medications directly to tumors.

Sep 28, 2026

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