Immunomodulation of the tumor microenvironment by Toll-like receptor-3 (TLR3) ligands

In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, the intratumoral expression of Toll-like receptor-3 (TLR3) correlates with prolonged survival. We demonstrated that TLR3 ligands can operate through three independent mechanisms: by directly killing TLR3-expressing cancer cells, by inducing T- and natural killer (NK)-cell infiltration and by activating TLR3-expressing NK cells.