Priming the pancreatic cancer tumor microenvironment for checkpoint-inhibitor immunotherapy

Single agent immunotherapy is effective against several cancers, but has failed against poorly immunogenic cancers, including pancreatic cancer. Evaluation of pancreatic tumors following treatment with an experimental vaccine (Lutz et al. Cancer Immunology Research 2014) suggests that vaccination primes the tumor microenvironment (TME) for checkpoint-inhibitor immunotherapy, and supports a new platform for evaluating checkpoint-inhibitors in poorly immunogenic cancers.