In soft tissue sarcomas, the presence of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) is known to increase sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors. In a clinical trial conducted at the Institut Bergonié, Prof. Antoine Italiano and colleagues studied the combination of an oncolytic virus and metronomic chemotherapy with the aim of remodeling the tumor microenvironment of patients with TLS-negative soft-tissue sarcoma, thereby improving their sensitivity to the PD-L1 inhibitor Avelumab.
As part of this study, tumor biopsies and plasma samples were supported and processed by Explicyte teams, for staining and Olink-based proteomics, respectively. Our results confirm that intratumoral administration of the oncolytic virus JX-584 can alter the immune landscape of the tumor microenvironment, potentially converting cold tumors into immunogenic tumors.