Intratumoral injection of schwannoma with attenuated Salmonella6typhimurium induces anti-tumor immunity and controls tumor growth

Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is caused by slow-growing, benign schwannomas that develop throughout the body that cause severe pain, morbidity, and mortality. Surgical resection and radiotherapy are the standards of care for NF2 but have major limitations. The paucity of NF2 therapeutic options is a major unmet medical need. Here we show that bacteriotherapy immunotherapy using an attenuated strain of Salmonella typhimurium can control this neoplasm in a preclinical mouse model. This strategy decreases angiogenesis, the volume of the injected tumor, and induced a systemic as well as an immunological memory response immune response that targeted distal tumors and prevented development of new lesions. These results support the evaluation of attenuated S. typhimurium as a treatment for of NF-2 disease.