Physicians and scientists have found that injecting tumors with influenza vaccines, including some FDA-approved seasonal flu shots, turns cold tumors to hot, a discovery that could lead to an immunotherapy to treat cancer.

Increasing immune cells within a tumor can change it from «cold» to «hot» — more recognizable to the immune system. Hot tumors show higher rates of response to treatment, and patients with such tumors have improved survival rates.

Physicians and scientists at Rush University Medical Center have found that injecting tumors with influenza vaccines, including some FDA-approved seasonal flu shots, turns cold tumors to hot, a discovery that could lead to an immunotherapy to treat cancer. The study results were published December 30th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Inactivated flu vaccines can make tumors hot

Currently, some immunotherapies utilize live pathogens (disease-causing organisms) as cancer treatments, but these treatments only have shown lasting effects in a limited number of patients and cancer types. «We wanted to understand how our strong immune responses against pathogens like influenza and their components could improve our much weaker immune response against some tumors,» said Andrew Zloza, MD, PhD, assistant professor in Rush Medical College’s Department of Internal Medicine and senior author of the study.

Drawing on a National Cancer Institute database, researchers found that people who had lung cancer and hospitalization for a lung infection from influenza at the same time lived longer than those who had lung cancer with no influenza. They found a similar outcome in mice with tumors and influenza infection in the lung.

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Materials provided by Rush University Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.