ICOS activation in combination with electrochemotherapy generates effective anti-cancer immunological responses in murine models of primary, secondary and metastatic disease

Electrochemotherapy is an evolving therapy which has recently been shown to induce an immunogenic form of cell death. It is hypothesized that the immunogenic cell death induced by electrochemotherapy may compliment the responses seen with anti-cancer immunotherapies. We therefore examined the effect of electrochemotherapy in combination with ICOS activation, which promotes the activity of previously activated T cells. In comparison to either monotherapy which resulted in no curative outcomes in any model, in a CT26 primary tumour 50% of mice were cured, with 100% of cured mice surviving tumour rechallenge. In a dual flank CT26 model mimicking secondary disease 20% of mice were cured, and 30% of mice were cured using an aggressively metastatic Lewis Lung Carcinoma model. We have shown the novel combination of electrochemotherapy with ICOS activation can inhibit local and distal tumour growth, including total tumour clearance with long lasting immunological memory.