ReviewNature reviews. Clinical oncology2017
A second chance for telomerase reverse transcriptase in anticancer immunotherapy.
Review in Nature reviews. Clinical oncology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- UCPVax, a CD4 helper peptide vaccine, induces polyfunctional Th1 cells, antibody response, and epitope spreading to improve antitumor immunity.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- NIPU: a randomised, open-label, phase II study evaluating nivolumab and ipilimumab combined with UV1 vaccination as second line treatment in patients with malignant mesothelioma.Journal of translational medicine · 2021Trial
- Combining a Universal Telomerase Based Cancer Vaccine With Ipilimumab in Patients With Metastatic Melanoma - Five-Year Follow Up of a Phase I/IIa Trial.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Trial
- Peripheral Innate Lymphoid Cells Are Increased in First Line Metastatic Colorectal Carcinoma Patients: A Negative Correlation With Th1 Immune Responses.Frontiers in immunology · 2019Trial
- Phase I/IIa clinical trial of a novel hTERT peptide vaccine in men with metastatic hormone-naive prostate cancer.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2017Trial
- Telomere-metabolism-immunity axis in sarcoma: Immune evasion mechanisms and therapeutic strategies.Clinical and translational medicine · 2025Review
- Immunotherapy Resistance in Lethal Prepubescent Spitz Melanoma WithJCO precision oncology · 2025Article
- Development of a microarray based telomerase binding assay reveals unusual binding of a cytochalasin derivative.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Strategies for neoantigen screening and immunogenicity validation in cancer immunotherapy (Review).International journal of oncology · 2025Review
- Key genes altered in glioblastoma based on bioinformatics (Review).Oncology letters · 2025Review
- Telomeres and telomerase in mesothelioma: Pathophysiology, biomarkers and emerging therapeutic strategies (Review).International journal of oncology · 2025Review
- Analysis of TERT mRNA Levels and Clinicopathological Features in Patients with Peritoneal Mesothelioma.Cancers · 2025Article
- The regulations of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in cancer.Cell death & disease · 2024Review
- Telomeres and telomerase in Sarcoma disease and therapy.International journal of medical sciences · 2024Review
- Review
- Combining old and new concepts in targeting telomerase for cancer therapy: transient, immediate, complete and combinatory attack (TICCA).Cancer cell international · 2023Review
- Predicting Outcomes of Atezolizumab and Bevacizumab Treatment in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Potential of Personalized Dendritic Cell-Based Immunohybridoma Vaccines to Treat Prostate Cancer.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Distinct mutational pattern of T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia combined with pure red cell aplasia: low mutational burden of STAT3.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Transcriptional analysis links B cells and TERT expression to favorable prognosis in head and neck cancer.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) is a self-antigen that is expressed constitutively in many tumours, and is, therefore, an important target for anticancer immunotherapy. In the past 10 years, trials of immunotherapy with TERT-based vaccines have demonstrated only modest benefits. In this Perspectives, I discuss the possible immunological reasons for this limited antitumour efficacy, and propose that advances in our understanding of the genetics and biology of the involvement of TERT in cancer provides the basis for renewed interest in TERT- based immunotherapy. Telomerase and TERT are expressed in cancer cells at every stage of tumour evolution, from the cancer stem cell to circulating tumour cells and tumour metastases. Many cancer types also harbour cells with mutations in the TERT promoter region, which increase transcriptional activation of this gene. These new findings should spur new interest in the development of TERT-based immunotherapies that are redesigned in line with established immunological considerations and working principles, and are tailored to patients stratified on the basis of TERT-promoter mutations and other underlying tumour characteristics. Thus, despite the disappointment of previous clinical trials, TERT offers the potential for personalized immunotherapy, perhaps in combination with immune-checkpoint inhibition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.