Harder for T cells to fight cancer in absence of VEGF-A

(Karolinska Institutet) Contrary to what was previously believed, the immune system's cancer-killing T cells are more effective in a tumour's anoxic environment when they have access to growth factor VEGF-A. In a study from Karolinska Institutet published in Cancer Cell, the researchers show how the T cells not only survive in this oxygen-depleted micro-environment with the help of transcription factor HIF-1a but also become more effective at killing cancer cells inside it.