Local Immune Modulation of Cancer

Tumors evolve to form highly immune-suppressive tissues that are often highly effective at suppressing immune cells. As such, it is imperative to manipulate the immune response within the tumor microenvironment to enhance anti-tumor activity and suppress these tumor-promoting signals. The local modulation of immunity aims to tip the balance towards immune-mediated tumor elimination through the local stimulation of immunity, which allows the education of systemic immune responses that are tailored to the cancer, which would allow for systemic responses against distant but related tumors. Local immune modulation represents a promising avenue in cancer therapy, offering a personally targeted immune response (in situ vaccine) and potentially less toxic alternatives to conventional treatments by stimulating immune responses to specifically combat cancer cell. However, the ability to stimulate local immune responses, neutralize immune suppression mechanisms, circumvent structural barriers within the tumor and administer these treatments within the tumor microenvironment remain significant challenges to this approach.

The focus of our research has been in exploiting gene delivery as a means to express innate and adaptive immune genes within the tumor microenvironment to stimulate immunity, as well as studies that determine the underlying immune suppressive mechanisms. The identification of these factors will allow our targeting of these factors, which could allow for new and more targeted methods to block immune-suppressive checkpoints.