Broadening the scope of SBRT.

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was one of the earliest benefactors of immunotherapies, but there’s still room for improvement. A pilot study published this week in Clinical Cancer Research evaluated the immunogenicity of 15 Gy x 1 to the primary tumor (with 5mm margin) just prior to nephrectomy. SBRT produced an increase in tumor-associated antigens and modulated immune infiltrate--curbing two frequent barriers to optimal immunotherapy response. This adds to a growing body of evidence that radiation may be a key ingredient to future cancer vaccines.