Basic Clinical Radiobiology 2017

Immune modulation

Herrera FG et al CA Cancer J Clin 2017

• Clinical efficacy of RT • Traditionally: local effect, through direct tumor cell death (DNA damage) • More recently: systemic effects on “out-of-field” tumor deposits = abscopal effect, mediated by immune mechanisms

• RT induces ‘in situ’ vaccination • RT reprograms the tumor micro-environment