Local therapy with combination TLR agonists stimulates systemic anti-tumor immunity and sensitizes tumors to immune checkpoint blockade

Citation:
Rwandamuriye FX, Wang T, Zhang H, Elaskalani O, Kuster J, Ye X, Vitali B, Schreurs J, Orozco Morales ML, Norret M, Evans CW, Zemek RM, Iyer KS, Lesterhuis WJ, Wylie B. Local therapy with combination TLR agonists stimulates systemic anti-tumor immunity and sensitizes tumors to immune checkpoint blockade. OncoImmunology. 2024;13(1).

Keywords:
Cancer immunotherapy; TLR agonists; combination therapy; hydrogel; innate immunity; surgery

Abstract:
Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists are being developed as anti-cancer therapeutics due to their potent immunostimulatory properties. However, clinical trials testing TLR agonists as monotherapy have often failed to demonstrate significant improvement over standard of care. We hypothesized that the anti-cancer efficacy of TLR agonist immunotherapy could be improved by combinatorial approaches.