The research progress of gastric cancer vaccines: a narrative review

Background and Objective: Gastric cancer (GC) vaccines are an important component of immunotherapy for GC. In recent years, continued advances in immunotherapy have driven substantial progress in vaccine development. This review summarizes and critically appraises recent developments in GC vaccine research, aiming to provide insights that may inform future vaccine design and development. Methods: A detailed narrative review of the recent literature was conducted to summarize the latest research progress on GC vaccines. The PubMed database was searched, with the most recent search completed on 31 December 2025. Key Content and Findings: This review summarizes recent advances in GC vaccine research. We briefly classify and describe current vaccine platforms, with a particular focus on emerging nucleic acid vaccines and nanovaccines and on strategies to enhance their efficacy. We also discuss approaches to overcoming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), optimizing the vaccine development pipeline, and evaluating artificial intelligence (AI)-based epitope prediction tools. Conclusions: Substantial opportunities remain to optimize the research and development of GC vaccines. With continued advances in immunology, molecular biology, and AI, together with large-scale population validation and cost-effective manufacturing, personalized vaccines and rational combination strategies are expected to accelerate the clinical translation of GC immunoprophylaxis and therapy, ultimately improving patient outcomes.