A multi-institutional study led by Mayo Clinic and published in Cell Reports Medicine reports that combining next-generation immunotherapy with standard hormone therapy before surgery could help overcome a long-standing barrier in treating early-stage prostate cancer. Immunotherapy has generally proven ineffective for prostate cancer because the tumors are considered immunologically “cold.” This means they do not attract enough immune cells to trigger a strong attack. The common hormone therapy for prostate cancer, called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), can make the tumors temporarily more responsive by luring immune cells into the tumor. However, this benefit is short-lived: the treatment also increases the number of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which suppress the immune system and dampen its cancer-fighting effect. In the first early-phase randomized human study, researchers investigated whether adding next-generation immunotherapy to hormone therapy before surgery could...