{"entity":{"id":"phage-delivery","kind":"technology","name":"Bacteriophage-based tumour delivery","aka":[],"tldr":"Bacteriophage delivery uses viruses that infect bacteria, not human cells, as engineered shells whose coat proteins display tumour-homing peptides or antigens and carry drugs or vaccines. They are cheap and cannot replicate in people, but the work is preclinical: no oncology phage trial had reported efficacy by 2026, and the body clears them quickly.","summary":"Phage particles are cheap, cannot replicate in human cells, and their coat proteins can be engineered to display tumour-homing peptides or antigens; phage display already underpins several approved antibodies. As a delivery vehicle in oncology the work is preclinical, with interest in phage-displayed neoantigen vaccines and in the tumour microbiome, where intratumoural bacteria could be targeted by phage. No oncology phage-therapy trial had reported efficacy by 2026.","status":"preclinical","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"ClinicalTrials.gov: bacteriophage cancer","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?term=bacteriophage%20cancer"}],"tags":["frontier","radical"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["drug-discovery","immunotherapy"],"technologies":["oncolytic-virus","shared-antigen-vaccine"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Engineered phage capsids display homing peptides or antigens and carry payloads; they are cleared by the reticuloendothelial system rather than infecting human cells.","strengths":["No human tropism, so no productive infection","Cheap manufacturing","Highly modular surface display"],"limitations":["Rapid clearance and anti-phage antibodies","No clinical efficacy data in oncology","Limited payload capacity"]},"route":"/technologies/phage-delivery/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"drug-discovery","kind":"section","name":"Drug Discovery Platforms","route":"/fronts/drug-discovery/"},{"id":"immunotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Immunotherapy","route":"/fronts/immunotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"shared-antigen-vaccine","kind":"technology","name":"Off-the-shelf cancer vaccines","route":"/technologies/shared-antigen-vaccine/"},{"id":"oncolytic-virus","kind":"technology","name":"Oncolytic viruses","route":"/technologies/oncolytic-virus/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"frontier-2035","kind":"roadmap","name":"Radical oncology: what could change the war by 2035","route":"/roadmaps/frontier-2035/"}]}}