Pancreatic cancer is one of the most challenging cancers to treat. Patients with pancreatic tumors have dismal survival rates, as most cases aren’t diagnosed until the tumor has already metastasized and spread to other organs. And, most pancreatic tumors fail to respond to modern chemotherapies and immunotherapies, partly because the tumor lacks mutations and molecular targets that immune cells can recognize. Now, scientists have created an immunotherapy that can shrink hard-to-treat pancreatic cancer tumors in mice by exploiting pre-existing immunity conferred by tetanus vaccines and rendering pancreatic tumors vulnerable to the immune system.
