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Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy
Published in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy 7/2017

01-07-2017 | Opinion Paper

Can local radiotherapy and IL-12 synergise to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and allow “in situ tumor vaccination”?

Authors: Gaël Deplanque, Keyvan Shabafrouz, Michel Obeid

Published in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy | Issue 7/2017

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Abstract

The abscopal effect, which is the spontaneous regression of tumors or metastases outside the radiation field, occurs rarely in cancer patients. Interestingly, radiotherapy (RT) triggers an immunogenic cell death (ICD) that is able to generate tumor-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cells that are efficient in killing cancer cells. The key question is: why is this “abscopal effect” so uncommon in cancer patients treated with RT? Most probably, the main reason may be related to the highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of well-established tumors that constantly antagonizes the anti-tumor immune responses triggered by RT. In this case, additional or combinatorial immunotherapy is needed to attenuate these immunosuppressive networks and, therefore, substantially increases the efficacy of RT. Here, we describe a potentially promising synergistic radio-immunotherapy “in situ tumor vaccination” protocol by antagonizing the tumor-immunosuppressive microenvironment with a combinatorial approach using local RT and IL-12-based TH1 response augmentation.
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Metadata
Title
Can local radiotherapy and IL-12 synergise to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and allow “in situ tumor vaccination”?
Authors
Gaël Deplanque
Keyvan Shabafrouz
Michel Obeid
Publication date
01-07-2017
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy / Issue 7/2017
Print ISSN: 0340-7004
Electronic ISSN: 1432-0851
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-017-2000-4

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