VEGF-A Found Critical in Helping T-Cells to Kill Tumors

Researchers report that the immune system's cancer-killing T cells are more effective in a tumor's anoxic environment when they have access to growth factor VEGF-A. In a study (“An HIF-1α/VEGF-A Axis in Cytotoxic T Cells Regulates Tumor Progression”) from the Karolinska Institutet published in  Cancer Cell , the scientists 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 m