Mechanisms of Action for Ad5-TRAIL/CpG Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Renal Cell Carcinoma

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2014. Major:Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. Advisor: Thomas S. Griffith. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 168 pages.Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) affects ~65,000 people in the U.S. annually. About 30% of RCC patients have multiple metastases at diagnosis, and an equal percentage will develop metastatic tumor recurrence after nephrectomy. Metastatic RCC is incurable, with a median survival time of only 18 months. Immune-based therapy for RCC provides the potential for long-lived protection against reoccurrence. However, even the most successful immunotherapy-based clinical trials only show objective response rates in