As discussed in detail herein, isolated epitope peptides derived from SEMA5B bind to an HLA antigen and induce cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and thus are suitable for use in the context of cancer immunotherapy, more particularly cancer vaccines. The inventive peptides encompass both the above mentioned amino acid sequences and modified versions thereof, in which one, two, or several amino acids are substituted, deleted, inserted or added, provided such modified versions retain the requisite HLA binding and/or CTL inducibility of the original sequences. Further provided are polynucleotides encoding any of the aforementioned peptides as well as pharmaceutical agents or compositions that include any of the aforementioned peptides or polynucleotides. The peptides, polynucleotides, pharmaceutical agents or compositions of this invention find particular utility in the treatment and/or prevention of cancers and tumors, including, for example, esophageal cancer, NSCLC, RCC and SCLC.
