Harnessing cytomegalovirus T-cells to combat triple-negative breast cancer

Immunotherapies & Personalized Vaccines

Tatiana Hurtado de Mendoza, PhD (UCSD)

Christopher Benedict, PhD (LJI)

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and highly recurrent type of cancer that is resistant to most therapies.

Our goal is to develop a new approach that uses our previous immunity against viruses to fight tumors. We will deliver viral proteins to tumor cells to make our immune system think it is fighting an infection, and instead turn against the tumor. We chose cytomegalovirus as a model because it infects >50% of the population, and generates a strong immune memory. We have tested our strategy in pancreatic tumors, and have delayed tumor growth and increased survival by 68%.

We believe this approach will also work for TNBC. This strategy is broadly applicable to many people and different types of cancer, making it a major medical advance.