Rerouting Dead Tumor Debris Enhances Cancer Immunotherapy Outcomes

Rerouting dead tumor debris enhances cancer immunotherapy outcomes

As tumors outgrow their blood and nutrient supplies, or respond to treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, individual cancer cells die, exposing their internal scaffolds.

How dead tumor cells could make chemotherapy and radiotherapy work better

As tumors outgrow their blood and nutrient supplies, or respond to treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, individual cancer cells die, exposing their internal scaffolds. These dead cells are an abundant source of mutated proteins, or antigens, that can mark cancer cells as different from healthy ones. This is exactly what the immune system needs to recognize a tumor.