Nanoscale frameworks could help advance personalized cancer ‘vaccines’

Researchers have demonstrated that charged nanoscale metal–organic frameworks (nMOFs), activated by X-rays to locally produce reactive oxygen species as well as deliver pathogen-associated molecular patterns, could help both boost the cytotoxic power of X-ray irradiation and enhance immune response, delivering a ‘one-two punch’ to tumors. Cancer ‘vaccines’ that locally deliver tumor antigen molecules to help enhance immune system activation represent a promising strategy to cancer therapy. However, the significant heterogeneity of tumor cells and somatic mutations between patients can make devising a cancer vaccine that a large group of patients will respond well to challenging. Personalized cancer vaccines could help...