Strong foundational research in immunology and some promising early phase trial results have so far failed to expedite the validation of vaccines to treat cancer. In Vivo examines biopharma’s enduring optimism about the future of cancer vaccinology, including a closer look at one company’s platform to tackle the incurable malignancies that beset the mother of all organs: the human brain.

This Month's Profile Group, Cancer Immunotherapy, features profiles of Annias Immunotherapeutics, Costanoan Immunotherapies, and Unum Therapeutics. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Glyconics, Metactive Medical, and Navigate Surgical Technologies

Every would-be developer of cancer immunotherapeutics faces the same basic problem: how to get the body's immune system to destroy cancerous cells without harming healthy ones. The founders of Annias Immunotherapeutics Inc. think they have found a way to help the body push through immune tolerance and become better able to seek and destroy solid tumors; the trick is targeting a virus that has recently been discovered to be present in certain types of tumors, but not in surrounding healthy tissue.

Cancer immunotherapy's potential payoff is big enough that acknowledged competitors are settling disputes, potential competitors are forging alliances, and start-ups like their chances of success. Profiles of Annias Immunotherapeutics, Costanoan Immunotherapies, and Unum Therapeutics.