Desired Characteristics
Effective cancer vaccines must resolve several challenges. Cancer vaccines seek to target an antigen specific to the tumor and distinct from self-proteins. Selection of the appropriate adjuvant, molecules that activate antigen-presenting cells to stimulate immune responses, is required. At the present time, only Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), aluminum-based salts and a squalene-oil-water emulsion are approved worldwide for clinical use. The effective vaccine also should seek to provide longterm memory to prevent tumor recurrence. Some scientists believe that for total tumor elimination, both the innate and adaptive immune systems should be activated.
Read more about this topic: Cancer Vaccine
Famous quotes containing the word desired:
“The human head is bigger than the globe. It conceives itself as containing more. It can think and rethink itself and ourselves from any desired point outside the gravitational pull of the earth. It starts by writing one thing and later reads itself as something else. The human head is monstrous.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)