Scientists are making encouraging progress in developing vaccines to treat cancer , but so far the therapies have been restricted to specific types of tumor . Now new research points the way to a universal vaccine that could attack a wider range of cancers.

The research led by a team at the University of Florida focuses on " waking up " the immune system to better respond to more types of cancerous cell – tumors that would otherwise be missed for a variety of reasons.

"What we found is by using a vaccine designed not to target cancer specifically but rather to stimulate a strong immunologic response, we could elicit a very strong anti-cancer reaction," says neuroscientist Duane Mitchell.

"And so this has significant potential to be broadly used across cancer patients – even poss

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