What's on the Horizon for Immunotherapy and Radiation Combinations?
- Although radiation/immunotherapy combinations are not yet approved for widespread use, they may be able to offer women another ovarian cancer treatment option going forward
- In one approach called “tumor vaccines,” the goal is to use the radiation to induce the release of tumor antigens, acting like a vaccine as it interacts with the immunotherapy drug
- Radiation may also shrink the tumor to the point where there is less remaining cancer for the immunotherapy drug to treat
Dr. Kevin Albuquerque, a radiation oncologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, describes several types of immunotherapy for ovarian cancer and how they can be combined with radiation. It’s important to note that these treatment options are not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), meaning they are not yet widely available for every woman with ovarian cancer. The hope is, after successful results in clinical trials, this will be the case in the future.
Read More “One concept is something called a tumor vaccine,” Dr. Albuquerque explains. With a tumor vaccine, radiation is given with the intent of destroying the actual tumor nodules first. In the process of doing so, the intention is for the tumor nodules to release what are called antigens. These can act like a vaccine, in turn enhancing the body’s normal immune system to affect the immunotherapy drugs that the patient has been given. Additionally, radiation may be able to act in combination with immunotherapy for ovarian cancer, to shrink or attack tumor cells so that the immunotherapy drugs have less cancer to treat. “Radiation by itself can ablate these and produce a state where there is reduced cancer burden in the patient,” says Dr. Albuquerque.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.