It is noteworthy that the strong transcriptional activity of the H5CmTERT promoter enabled H5CmTERT-Ad/TRAIL to express stTRAIL abundantly and led to effective induction of apoptosis in TRAIL-resistant U87MG31 and TRAIL-sensitive U251N56,57 glioblastoma cells (Figs 1b and 3), suggesting that highly localized expression of stTRAIL in tumour tissue by an oncolytic adenovirus may overcome apoptosis resistance of malignant glioblastomas (Fig. 6). The gene discussed is TNFSF10; the disease is neoplasm.