Progress towards a universal cancer vaccine

The ultimate aim for a therapeutic cancer vaccine is to kill tumour cells selectively, with no detrimental effect on normal bystander cells. A recent study (Nat Med 2000; 6: 1011–17) provides a significant advance towards the development of such a vaccine and, most importantly, suggests a ‘universal’ antigen that might be used to treat a broad range of different tumours. In most normal cells, the activity of the ribonucleoprotein telomerase complex is low or undetectable, but more than 85% of human tumours show high expression of the complex. A rational therapeutic vaccine strategy is therefore to induce cytotoxic T-cell activity targeted at the polypeptide component of the complex (TERT) as a means of selectively removing the tumour cells.