Low-dose radiotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced malignancies: a real-world exploratory...

Patients with advanced malignancies often have limited treatment options after failure of systemic therapy, and the prognosis remains poor. Low-dose radiotherapy (LDRT) has been proposed to enhance antitumor immunity and may improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We aimed to evaluate the clinical activity and safety of LDRT combined with ICIs in patients with advanced malignancies in a real-world clinical setting.

This single-center retrospective real-world study included patients with advanced malignancies treated at Taikang Xianlin Drum Tower Hospital who received LDRT (2 Gy × 3 fractions, total dose 6 Gy) directed to progressive lesions in combination with programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors. Clinical characteristics, treatment details, tumor response, follow-up data, and treatment-related adverse events were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The primary endpoints were objective response rate (ORR) and progression-free survival (PFS), while the secondary endpoint was disease control rate (DCR). Safety was assessed according to the incidence of treatment-related adverse events.

Thirteen patients with various advanced malignancies were included in the analysis. The ORR was 38.5% and the DCR was 76.9%. The median PFS was 6.7 months. Notably, all documented disease progression occurred outside the irradiated fields, whereas the irradiated lesions remained locally controlled during follow-up. Treatment-related adverse events were mainly chemotherapy-related hematologic toxicities. No clinically significant immune-related adverse events, radiotherapy-related toxicities, or treatment-related deaths were observed.

LDRT combined with ICIs showed preliminary clinical activity with acceptable tolerability in this small real-world cohort of patients with advanced malignancies. Although limited by the small sample size, this approach may represent a feasible treatment option for selected patients and should be further evaluated in prospective studies.