When we treated tumor-bearing mice with free R848, slow R848-BPDs, or medium R848-BPDs, we found that the substantial tumor accumulation of BPDs correlated with the generation of high levels of proinflammatory cytokines including type I IFN and TNF-α in the tumor microenvironment, which were not induced to statistically significant levels over saline-treated tumors by free R848 (Fig. 4, F and G). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is neoplasm.