Viral boost for cancer immunotherapies

Researchers at Hannover Medical School and District Clinics Reutlingen have used oncolytic viruses to break immune tolerance toward tumor cells and thus boost the efficacy of dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines.¹ The group is now evaluating whether virus-induced tumor inflammation could bolster the efficacy of other classes of cancer immunotherapies.

Immune tolerance toward tumor cells and the low inherent immunogenicity of many tumor-associated antigens make it difficult to stimulate a robust antitumor immune response and can limit the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies...