With the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibodies, the treatment of malignancies has improved dramatically. However, the efficacy of ICIs therapy would be influenced by multiple factors, including performance scores, stages, PD-L1 or tumor mutation burden (TMB) status, etc. In unselected populations, the objective response rate (ORR) of ICI monotherapy is often less than 20%.
Studies have shown that the combination of ICIs with conventional therapies, especially classical chemotherapy, would significantly improve the outcomes. For example, in NSCLC, KEYNOTE189 study demonstrated that the combination of PD-1 and chemotherapy could provide a significant survival benefit as to chemotherapy alone, even in a population with negative PD-L1 expression. In addition, preclinical and clinical phase I/II studies have shown great potential for a synergistic relationship between ICIs and radiation therapy. A subsequent analysis of Keynote 001 observed that NSCLC patients who had previously received radiation therapy presented better OS and PFS than those without a history of radiotherapy, and the prembroRT study further showed adding local SBRT (8Gy in 3 fraction) therapy to ICIs was a highly promising treatment for advanced NSCLC.
Previous studies have shown that NSCLC is the malignancy that would benefit most from ICI therapy. In metastatic NSCLC, the synergy between radiotherapy and ICI has been showing the first signs. In summary, the synergy may include the following aspects: one of which is the direct killing effect by local radiotherapy, which may lead to the release of de novo tumor antigens and subsequently sensitize ICIs to produce an abscopal effect, and the second one is that the direct killing effect via radiotherapy may reduce the tumor load and improve the tumor microenvironment. However, the specific modalities, timing, and in-depth mechanisms of combining radiotherapy with ICI in NSCLC remain a topic that deserves further discussion.
We welcome submissions on the following subtopics:
1. New molecular basis of the synergistic effect of radiotherapy and immunotherapy in NSCLC;
2. Dynamic evolution of tumor immune microenvironment in NSCLC under different radiotherapy doses;
3. Effects of different ray qualities on the immune microenvironment;
4. Differences in immune cell mobilization in the microenvironment of SCLC as well as NSCLC in the context of low-dose radiotherapy;
5. Role of cGAS-STING pathway in the synergy between radiotherapy and immunotherapy.
NOTE: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation are considered out of the scope of this section.
With the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibodies, the treatment of malignancies has improved dramatically. However, the efficacy of ICIs therapy would be influenced by multiple factors, including performance scores, stages, PD-L1 or tumor mutation burden (TMB) status, etc. In unselected populations, the objective response rate (ORR) of ICI monotherapy is often less than 20%.
Studies have shown that the combination of ICIs with conventional therapies, especially classical chemotherapy, would significantly improve the outcomes. For example, in NSCLC, KEYNOTE189 study demonstrated that the combination of PD-1 and chemotherapy could provide a significant survival benefit as to chemotherapy alone, even in a population with negative PD-L1 expression. In addition, preclinical and clinical phase I/II studies have shown great potential for a synergistic relationship between ICIs and radiation therapy. A subsequent analysis of Keynote 001 observed that NSCLC patients who had previously received radiation therapy presented better OS and PFS than those without a history of radiotherapy, and the prembroRT study further showed adding local SBRT (8Gy in 3 fraction) therapy to ICIs was a highly promising treatment for advanced NSCLC.
Previous studies have shown that NSCLC is the malignancy that would benefit most from ICI therapy. In metastatic NSCLC, the synergy between radiotherapy and ICI has been showing the first signs. In summary, the synergy may include the following aspects: one of which is the direct killing effect by local radiotherapy, which may lead to the release of de novo tumor antigens and subsequently sensitize ICIs to produce an abscopal effect, and the second one is that the direct killing effect via radiotherapy may reduce the tumor load and improve the tumor microenvironment. However, the specific modalities, timing, and in-depth mechanisms of combining radiotherapy with ICI in NSCLC remain a topic that deserves further discussion.
We welcome submissions on the following subtopics:
1. New molecular basis of the synergistic effect of radiotherapy and immunotherapy in NSCLC;
2. Dynamic evolution of tumor immune microenvironment in NSCLC under different radiotherapy doses;
3. Effects of different ray qualities on the immune microenvironment;
4. Differences in immune cell mobilization in the microenvironment of SCLC as well as NSCLC in the context of low-dose radiotherapy;
5. Role of cGAS-STING pathway in the synergy between radiotherapy and immunotherapy.
NOTE: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation are considered out of the scope of this section.
