Basic cancer immunology for radiation oncologists

Abstract

Although the impressive clinical responses seen with modern cancer immunotherapy are currently limited to a subset of patients, the underlying paradigm shift has resulted in now hardly a segment in oncology that has not been touched by the immuno-oncology revolution. A growing body of data indicates that radiation therapy (RT) can modulate the tumour immune microenvironment and complement cancer immunotherapy via non-overlapping mechanisms to reinvigorate immunity against cancer. Thus, increasingly RT is viewed as a highly unique partner for immunotherapy across the spectrum of cancer settings, as radiobiology and cancer immunology foreseeably become more intertwined. Considering these devel..