Flu Shot Ignites Immune Attack Against Cancer in Mice

Injecting the seasonal flu vaccine directly into clumps of malignant cells recruits immune cells to confront the cancer.

| 6 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
6:00
Share

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, LUISMMOLINA

Nearly 5,000 years ago, Egyptian physician Imhotep observed a grotesque but revealing detail about tumors: some grew so large that they burst open—and eventually disappeared. Seeing this happen, ancient texts suggest, he developed a radical cancer treatment: pierce patients’ tumors and then wait to see if they got smaller, cancer researcher Andrew Zloza of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago tells The Scientist. Sometimes they did.

With no knowledge of the human immune system, Imhotep had hit on an essential connection between tumors and infections that wouldn’t appear again in the scientific literature until the turn of the 20th century, when bone surgeon and cancer researcher William Coley began injecting live bacteria and later bacterial toxins into individuals with sarcoma. Although Coley’s technique showed some success in treating patients’ cancer, it was quickly abandoned in favor of emerging chemo-therapy and radiation therapy, Zloza says.

Imhotep devel­oped ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Ashley Yeager

    Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

Published In

April 2020

Exercise for Cancer

Molecular clues link physical activity to improved patient outcomes

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio