012 The Viruses Within Us and How They Help Treat Cancer

For Whom the Cell Tolls: Emerging and Established Cancer Biology

This is an exciting and quick episode that mainly covers the findings of a recent Daniel D. Carvalho paper in Nature Reviews called “Epigenetic therapy in immune oncology” where the authors elaborate on new mechanisms of cancer treatments. Essentially, the epigenetic Cancer therapies that cause genes to reprogram the “on/off” state also awaken ancient relic viruses that lie dormant in our DNA, which subsequently leads to a massive immune response against the tumor. These mechanisms may play a role in treating aggressive forms of the disease that usually evade the immune system. Enjoy!