All-trans-retinoic acid (≥ 98% by HPLC, powder) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Macquarie Park, NSW) and suspended in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; Sigma-Aldrich) at a concentration of 40 mg/ml for short term storage at − 80˚C. Mice were treated with 10 mg/kg of tretinoin for 9 consecutive days, intraperitoneally. Working concentrations of tretinoin were suspended in PBS and had a final DMSO concentration of 5%.
For all immune cell depletion experiments, antibody administration began three days before tumour inoculation. Anti-CD4 (clone GK1.5) and anti-CD8 (clone YTS 169; both BioXcell, New Hampshire, USA) were dosed i.p at 100 µg in 100 µl of PBS on day 3, day 0 and thereafter weekly until the end of experiment. Depletion was monitored in peripheral blood collected from the tail vein and analysed by flow cytometry.