Abstract

Since its first clinical application, 120 years ago, radiotherapy evolved into a major anti-cancer treatment modality, offering high cure rates in many human malignancies. During the past ten years, the establishment of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in cancer therapeutics has vigorously reintroduced the immune system’s role in the outcome of radiotherapy and, conversely, the role of radio-vaccination in the efficacy of immunotherapy. The knowledge and clinical experience that founded the current era of immuno-radiotherapy started alongside with the birth of radiotherapy, and evolved through exhaustive experimental work, clinical trials on active specific immunotherapy, frustrating attempts to validate the importance of cytokine administration with radiotherapy, and, finally, the encouraging ICI-based clinical trials that opened the door to a far more encouraging perspective; radio-vaccination, through its old and new methods, is rising as a research field that promises to cure, previously incurable, disease. In this critical review, we focus on the scientific knowledge gathered through more than a century of research on radiotherapy interactions with the immune system. Understanding the origins of this promising therapeutic approach will substantially contribute to developing new immuno-radiotherapy policies in the fight against cancer.

摘要

自 120 年前首次临床应用以来，放疗已发展成为一种主要的抗癌治疗方式，为许多人类恶性肿瘤提供了高治愈率。在过去的十年中，免疫检查点抑制剂 (ICI) 在癌症治疗中的建立有力地重新引入了免疫系统在放射治疗结果中的作用，相反，放射疫苗接种在免疫治疗效果中的作用。建立当前免疫放射治疗时代的知识和临床经验随着放射治疗的诞生而开始，并通过详尽的实验工作、主动特异性免疫治疗的临床试验、验证细胞因子给药与放射治疗的重要性的令人沮丧的尝试而发展，以及，最后，令人鼓舞的基于 ICI 的临床试验为更令人鼓舞的观点打开了大门；无线电疫苗接种，通过其新旧方法，正在成为一个有望治愈以前无法治愈的疾病的研究领域。在这篇重要的评论中，我们重点关注通过一个多世纪的放射治疗与免疫系统相互作用的研究收集的科学知识。了解这种有前途的治疗方法的起源将大大有助于制定新的免疫放射治疗政策来抗击癌症。我们专注于通过一个多世纪的放射治疗与免疫系统相互作用的研究收集的科学知识。了解这种有前途的治疗方法的起源将大大有助于制定新的免疫放射治疗政策来抗击癌症。我们专注于通过一个多世纪的放射治疗与免疫系统相互作用的研究收集的科学知识。了解这种有前途的治疗方法的起源将大大有助于制定新的免疫放射治疗政策来抗击癌症。