The researchers at the University of Georgia Cancer Center synthesized a carbohydrate-based vaccine that -- in mice -- successfully triggered a strong immune response to cancer cells.

"In mice we can illicit very strong antibody responses and we have shown that the antibody responses are functional -- that they can kill cancer cells," said Professor Geert-Jan Boons, lead author of the student.

Vaccines usually prevent diseases by priming the immune system to recognize and attack a virus or bacteria. But the vaccine Boons and colleagues developed is a therapeutic vaccine that trains the body's immune system to fight an existing disease.

"We needed to come up with a vaccine that does not give our immune system a chance to go after anything else but the tumor-associated carbohydrate," Boons said. "In other words, there should no junk that can induce an immune response to something other than the tumor-associated carbohydrate."

The research is reported in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.