From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— A new study out of the UW Carbone Cancer Center shows a “mixed dose” approach to radiation therapy improves the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs.
The study, led by then-PhD candidate Justin Jagodinksy under UW-Madison Prof. Dr. Zachary Morris, was published recently in the journal Science Translational Medicine. It focused on a method for delivering varying doses of radiation to tumors to boost the cancer-fighting power of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Using mouse models of prostate cancer and melanoma, researchers inserted a radioactive material into tumors with a catheter. This approach, called brachytherapy, results in more radiation hitting the region close to the catheter and lower doses further out.
The scientists found the higher dose kills the cancer cells in the immediate area, while medium doses lead to an immune reaction called a “type 1 interferon response” that helps fight viruses in the body, and lower doses cause changes to trigger more immune cells reaching the tumor.
The study also shows the mixed dose treatment was “most effective” at boosting tumor-specific T-cells, a form of immune cell that attacks cancer in the body. Jagodinksy, who’s now in radiation oncology residency at Stanford University, says the tumors treated this way “had much more robust immune activation” compared to treatments that use just one level of radiation.
Meanwhile, Morris notes the results “point to new approaches” for using radiation to treat patients for whom immunotherapies have stopped working. Initial treatment targets could include cancers of the skin, prostate, breast, head, neck and others. Scientists need to better understand how to best combine radiotherapy and immunotherapy, according to Morris.
“The next step could be to see if giving different doses of radiation delivered via brachytherapy can make the tumors more visible to the immune system and improve the response to immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs,” he said.
See more in the release below.
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