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A cancer vaccine is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.
Some researchers claim that cancerous cells routinely arise and are destroyed by the immune system ; and that tumors form when the immune system fails to destroy them.
Some types of cancer, such as cervical cancer and liver cancer, are caused by viruses. Traditional vaccines against those viruses, such as the HPV vaccine and the hepatitis B vaccine, prevent those types of cancer. Other cancers are to some extent caused by bacterial infections. Traditional vaccines against cancer-causing bacteria are not further discussed in this article.