Fig 1. Surgical stress impairs anti-tumor immunity resulting in lung metastasis and subcutaneous tumor growth.

(a) B6 mice were administered with neoadjuvant AdDCT at 1×10⁷ pfu. On day 7, mice were challenged iv with 3x10⁵ of B16F10lacZ cells in order to establish syngeneic lung melanoma metastases, and then underwent abdominal laparatomy and nephrectomy (Nx) or no surgery. (b) Lungs extracted at day 10 (3 days following tumor cell inoculation) from PBS, Nx, AdDCT, AdDCT+Nx and quantified by X-Gal staining. N = 5/group. (c) B6 mice were vaccinated with AdDCT, then challenged on day 7 with sc 1x10⁶ B16F10lacZ cells, then underwent surgery or no surgery. (d) Tumor volume of treated B16F10lacZ sc tumor bearing mice was monitored daily. (e) Survival of treated B16F10lacZ sc tumor-bearing mice are shown in Kaplan-Meier curves. Percentage of living mice is indicated. N = 7-8/group, (*P<0.05, ***P<0.001).