Fox Chase Cancer CenterResearch on Making Cancer ‘Catch’ the Flu Wins International Acclaim in “Nature”

The researchers put a theory to the test by administering the compound CBL0137 to melanoma mouse models. This compound causes the same type of highly inflammatory cell death that the influenza virus causes, but it does so directly in cancerous tissue. The resulting antiviral response alerted the immune system. It heated up a “cold” tumor so that, when combined with immunotherapy, the host immune system recognized cancer as something to be destroyed.