Opportunities and challenges of low-dose radiation to enable immunotherapy efficacy

Katiuska Passelli1, David Repáraz1, Fernanda G Herrera2

  • 1Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Service of Radiation Oncology, Department of Oncology, University of Lausanne, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Agora Center for Cancer Research, Swiss Cancer Center Leman, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies blocking different immune checkpoints, have demonstrated efficacy against a wide variety of solid tumors. The exclusion or absence of lymphocytes within the tumor microenvironment (TME) is one of the main resistance mechanisms to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-based therapies. Therefore, there is a growing interest in identifying novel approaches to promote T cell infiltration on immune-deserted (cold) and immune-excluded tumors to turn them into inflamed (hot) tumors. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the recently published studies showing the potential of low-dose radiation (LDRT) to reprogram the TME to allow and promote T-cell infiltration and thus, improve currently approved ICI-based therapies.

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