Cancer immunoinformatics: a new assistant tool for malignant disease research

Objective To introduce the recent developments in cancer immunoinformatics with an emphasis on the latest trends and future direction. Data sources All related articles in this review were searched from PubMed published in English from 1992 to 2013. The search terms were cancer, immunoinformatics, immunological databases, and computational vaccinology. Study selection Original articles and reviews those were related to application of cancer immunoinformatics about tumor basic and clinical research were selected. Results Cancer immunoinformatics has been widely researched and applied in a series of fields of cancer research, including computational tools for cancer, cancer immunological databases, computational vaccinology, and cancer diagnostic workflows. Furthermore, the improvement of its theory and technology brings an enlightening insight into understanding and researching cancer and helps expound more deep and complete mechanisms of tumorigenesis and progression. Conclusion Cancer immunoinformatics provides promising methods and novel strategies for the discovery and development of tumor basic and clinical research.