HSPPC-96 vaccine in metastatic melanoma patients: from the state of the art to a possible future. 
Heat-shock proteins are highly conserved, stress-induced proteins with chaperone function for trafficking and delivering peptides within the different compartments of the cell.  Tumor-derived heat-shock protein-peptide complexes (HSPPCs) can be used for vaccination against malignancies.  In particular, the HSPPC-96-based vaccine vitespen (formerly Oncophage) is the first autologous cancer vaccine made from individual patients' tumors that has shown encouraging results in clinical trials.  In Phase I and II clinical trials, this vaccine has shown activity on different malignancies, such as gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic myelogenous leukemia.  In Phase III clinical trials in melanoma and kidney cancer, it demonstrated an excellent safety profile with almost no toxicity.  Heat-shock protein-based vaccines can be considered as a novel therapeutic approach with a promising role in cancer management.