Radiotherapy and immunotherapy

Radiation therapy is one of the standard treatment method in cancer patients. Apart from exerting the killing effect towards cancer cells it produces modulation effect on local and systemic disease. Recently, immunotherapy, aiming mainly to immune checkpoint blockade, has become widely used in many clinical situations. Experimental and clinical studies indicate that the combination of both radiation therapy and immunotherapy may be beneficial in cancer patient population in different clinical scenarios. Durvalumab maintenance therapy after radiochemotherapy in stage III NSCLC patients was introduced to the standard clinical care. The paper discusses shortly the pathogenesis of the mutual interaction between radiation therapy and immunotherapy as well available preclinical and clinical data concerning this promising treatment combination