Low-Dose Total Body Irradiation Can Enhance Systemic Immune Related Response Induced by Hypo-Fractionated Radiation

A systemic immune related response (SIME) of radiotherapy has been occasionally observed on metastatic tumors, but the clinical outcomes remain poor. Novel treatment approaches are therefore needed to improve SIME ratio. We used a combination of hypo-fractionated radiation therapy (H-RT) with low-dose total body irradiation (L-TBI) in a syngeneic mouse model of breast and colon carcinoma. The combination therapy of H-RT and L-TBI potentially enhanced SIME by infiltration of CD8⁺ T cell and altering the immunosuppressive microenvironment in non-irradiated subcutaneous tumor lesions. The frequency of IFN-γ, as a tumor-specific CD8⁺ T cells producing, significantly inhibited the secondary tumor growth of breast and colon. Our findings suggest that L-TBI could serve as a potential therapeutic agent for metastatic breast and colon cancer and, together with H-RT, their therapeutic potential is enhanced significantly.