TY - JOUR
T1 - Radiotherapy and immunotherapy
T2 - A beneficial liaison?
AU - Weichselbaum, Ralph R.
AU - Liang, Hua
AU - Deng, Liufu
AU - Fu, Yang Xin
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank Amy K. Huser at The University of Chicago for her invaluable literature-research, writing, and editing contributions to the historical passages of this Review, and Table 1 and Figure 1. The work of R.R.W is supported in part by NIH grant NCI-R21CA195075-01.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2017/6/1
Y1 - 2017/6/1
N2 - Investigations into the interaction between radiotherapy and the host immune system have uncovered new mechanisms that can potentially be exploited to improve the efficacy of radiotherapy. Radiation promotes the release of danger signals and chemokines that recruit inflammatory cells into the tumour microenvironment, including antigen-presenting cells that activate cytotoxic T-cell function. By contrast, radiation can attract immunosuppressive cells into the tumour microenvironment. In rare circumstances, the antitumour effect of radiotherapy has been observed outside of the radiation field, known as the abscopal effect. This phenomenon is proposed to have an immune origin and indicates that local radiotherapy elicits systemic effects. Herein, we highlight data that provide new mechanistic explanations for the success or failure of radiotherapy, and postulate how the combination of immune-modulation and radiation could tip the balance of the host immune response to promote cure. We use the concept of radiation- induced tumour equilibrium (RITE) as a starting point to discuss the mechanistic influence of immune-checkpoint therapies on radiotherapy efficacy.
AB - Investigations into the interaction between radiotherapy and the host immune system have uncovered new mechanisms that can potentially be exploited to improve the efficacy of radiotherapy. Radiation promotes the release of danger signals and chemokines that recruit inflammatory cells into the tumour microenvironment, including antigen-presenting cells that activate cytotoxic T-cell function. By contrast, radiation can attract immunosuppressive cells into the tumour microenvironment. In rare circumstances, the antitumour effect of radiotherapy has been observed outside of the radiation field, known as the abscopal effect. This phenomenon is proposed to have an immune origin and indicates that local radiotherapy elicits systemic effects. Herein, we highlight data that provide new mechanistic explanations for the success or failure of radiotherapy, and postulate how the combination of immune-modulation and radiation could tip the balance of the host immune response to promote cure. We use the concept of radiation- induced tumour equilibrium (RITE) as a starting point to discuss the mechanistic influence of immune-checkpoint therapies on radiotherapy efficacy.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85009820249&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85009820249&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.211
DO - 10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.211
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28094262
AN - SCOPUS:85009820249
SN - 1759-4774
VL - 14
SP - 365
EP - 379
JO - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
JF - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
IS - 6
ER -