| abstract |
The present invention provides vaccines and pharmaceutical compositions which can, when administered to a patient, elicit an immune response to the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Immunogenic peptide epitopes of human CEA are provided, as well as immunogenic peptide analogs which can induce an immune response cross-reactive against CEA which response is superior in quality to that induced by the corresponding wild-type epitope. Also disclosed herein are pharmaceutical compositions and vaccines comprising one or more of said peptides and analogs for prophylaxis and/or treatment of cancer. This invention further provides polynucleotides encoding at least one of the CEA analogs described herein, and vectors and host cells comprising said polynucleotides. Methods of inducing an immune response in a patient, in addition to methods of treatment using the immunogenic peptides, peptide analogs and polynucleotides disclosed herein are also disclosed. |