Our third forum of the year, Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy Combination, kicked off today in Castello, Italy!  Chaired by Julie Constanzo, PhD of IRCM, INSERM U1194 and Lorenzo Galluzzi, PhD of Weill Cornell Medical College, the meeting will critically discuss strategies to harness radiation therapy as an immunostimulant with the objective of developing novel, clinically relevant combinatororial regimens involving RT and immunotherapy.

ABOUT THIS FORUM

Radiation therapy (RT) has been developed as a purely cytostatic/cytotoxic therapy against cancer. Abundant preclinical and clinical data suggests that at least part of the therapeutic effects of RT involve the activation of tumor-targeting immune responses, which can be actioned with immunotherapeutic agents toward superior efficacy. The meeting will review/critically discuss strategies to harness RT as an immunostimulant with the objective of developing novel, clinically relevant combinatororial regimens involving RT and immunotherapy.

RT is the most common form of therapy for cancer (>50% of patients receive RT as part of the clinical management of the disease) but is normally NOT employed according to dose and fractionation schedules that enable immunostimulation and hence unleash potential for combining RT with immunotherapy. Immunostimulation by RT is a novel concept with elevated potential to extend the indications for which immunotherapy is effective, generally in the context of acceptable toxicity.

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