ON THE MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE IMMUNOSTIMULATORY THEORY OF CANCER

CHIARELLA, PAULA; MACHUCA, DAMIÁN; MONTAGNA, DANIELA; DRAN, GRACIELA; MEISS, ROBERTO P.; RUGGIERO, RAÚL A.

MAR DEL PLATA

Congreso; LIX REUNIÓN CIENTÍFICA ANUAL-LXII REUNIÓN ANUAL; 2014

There is a generalized belief that the worst possible outcome for the application of immunological therapies against cancer is a null effect on tumor growth. However, the immunostimulatory theory (IT) of cancer suggests that, upon certain circumstances, the growth of tumors can be accelerated, rather than inhibited, by the specific immune response (IR) designed to attack the tumor. In this work, we have confirmed and extended the empirical basis of the IT demonstrating that the IR evoked by strongly immunogenic chemically-induced and weakly immunogenic spontaneous murine tumors is biphasic, with weak IRs inducing stimulation and strong IRs inducing inhibition of tumor growth. In line with these observations, we could also demonstrate that most spontaneous murine tumors (12 of 15) grow in an accelerated way in pre-immunized hosts (p