An experimental drug enhanced the benefit of an immunotherapy to fight pancreatic cancer in mice by increasing the number of immune cells in the immediate vicinity of the tumor, leading to a reduction in tumor growth, and in some mice, eliminating their cancer. The findings, from researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc., provide early evidence that the drug could jump-start an immune response against pancreatic cancer, a disease that has so far been resistant to immunotherapy. The data comes from experiments with BXCL701, an experimental dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) inhibitor developed by BioXcel Therapeutics, and appears in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer on November 4, 2021. The open-access article is titled “DPP Inhibition Alters the CXCR3 axis and Enhances NK and CD8+ T Cell Infiltration to Improve Anti-PD1 Efficacy In Murine Models of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.”