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Synergy Between Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy

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Oncoimmunology

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Abstract

Radiotherapy has been used for over 50 years as an effective modality to kill cancer cells. Much of the efforts to improve its efficacy have been focused on improving dose delivery to the tumor while sparing as much as possible normal tissue around it. This task has inspired generations of biologists and clinical investigators to study the mechanisms of radiation damage and repair of different tissues. A century of preclinical and clinical research has established the basic principle of dose fractionation, with well-established protocols to safely deliver a cytocidal dose to the tumor while enabling recovery of normal tissue often with daily regimens delivered over several weeks. More recently, technological progress has resulted in linear accelerators that very precisely target the tumor and its movement during dose delivery, enabling safety of regimens with fewer, larger doses of radiation. Noticeably, this approach has demonstrated not only to be more convenient for the patients but often to achieve better results in tumor control. Since hypo-fractionated radiation has often resulted in outcomes comparable to those of surgery, it has gained the naming of “ablative radiotherapy.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Sandra Demaria, Sophia Bornstein & Silvia C. Formenti

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  1. Sandra Demaria
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  2. Sophia Bornstein
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  3. Silvia C. Formenti
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Correspondence to Silvia C. Formenti .

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  1. Gustave Roussy Cancer Center , Villejuif Cedex, France

    Laurence Zitvogel

  2. Gustave Roussy Cancer Center , Villejuif Cedex, France

    Guido Kroemer

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Demaria, S., Bornstein, S., Formenti, S.C. (2018). Synergy Between Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy. In: Zitvogel, L., Kroemer, G. (eds) Oncoimmunology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62431-0_30

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