Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy Combinations for the Treatment of Cancer
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Therapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2021) | Viewed by 6725
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Radiotherapy (RT) is a principal component of cancer treatment, given to over 50% of patients. In addition to direct cytotoxic activity via the induction of DNA damage, RT can influence the immune response to cancer and recalibrate the tumour microenvironment. Immunogenic changes in response to RT contribute to multiple stages of the cancer immunity cycle, activate the innate immune system and orchestrate priming of tumour-specific immunity. Alternatively, RT can exacerbate immune suppression via the upregulation of inhibitory checkpoints, and recruitment of myeloid cells. The ability of RT to modulate immune responses to cancer provides a clear rationale for combination with immunotherapeutic strategies. An extensive array of preclinical studies support this concept, demonstrating improved local control following combination therapy and highlighting the exciting potential to augment systemic immunity, leading to remission of disease outside of the irradiated field (abscopal responses). In particular, the inclusion of immune checkpoint blockade into the RT regimen has demonstrated considerable efficacy, and combinations of RT and anti-PD1/PD-L1 or CTLA-4 antibodies are currently being evaluated in the clinical arena.
Translating the preclinical potential of RT and immunotherapy combinations into clinical reality requires a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms that underpin the impressive experimental outcomes to date. There remains much uncertainty around the optimal sequence, schedule, dose, fraction and field of RT to use together with immunotherapy. Enhanced understanding of drivers of resistance, as well as identification of biomarkers to better predict which patients will respond to treatment are also required.
This Special Issue will highlight the role of radiotherapy in modulating the tumour microenvironment and systemic immune response to cancer, the impact of immunotherapy combination on the efficacy of RT and provide a perspective on how RT and immunotherapy combinations can be utilised to enhance patient outcome in the clinic.
Dr. Jamie Honeychurch
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- Radiotherapy
- Immunotherapy
- Tumour microenvironment
- Checkpoint blockade
- Immune suppression
- Immunogenic cell death
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