Eradication of orhtotopic pancreatic cancers by vaccination with adjuvant-formulated tumor antigen and a TLR ligand

Objective: Tumor vaccination aims at inducing cytotoxic T cells capable of killing tumors. However, immune responses are severely impaired in cancer patients. Overcoming tumor-induced immune suppression is a challenge for new generation tumor vaccines. Immune stimulatory complexes (ISCOMs), a formulation of cholesterol, phospholipids and saponin, have been successfully used for the delivery of protein antigen to APC in vivo. We developed a mouse model for studying ISCOM vaccines for the treatment of orthotopic pancreatic cancer. Material and Methods: For tumor induction, OVA-expressing pancreatic carcinoma cells…