Same-day chemotherapy boosts cancer vaccine responses in preclinical models

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Preclinical research suggests that administering chemotherapy on the same day as a cancer vaccine can boost vaccine responses. The article notes that chemotherapy can also damage rapidly multiplying CD8+ T cells, which help fight cancer and viral infections.

Both the clinical effects and the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapies, from hair loss to mouth sores to gastrointestinal discomfort, stem from their indiscriminate destruction of cells prone to rapid proliferation. That includes CD8+ T cells, the body's frontline soldiers against viral infections and cancer, which multiply furiously when they're activated by their target antigens.