Start Date

26-10-2022 11:30 AM

End Date

26-10-2022 1:00 PM

Description

Given that there still exist cancers that are unresponsive to immunotherapy, high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation offers an alternative solution to bolstering anti-tumor immunity. Linear energy transfer is energy transferred per unit distance. Alpha particles have higher LET than other forms of radiotherapy and can create clustered DNA lesions. A possible component of these lesions is micronuclei, cytoplasmic DNA that can stimulate downstream immunostimulatory mechanisms. Because alpha particles cannot travel far, we utilized diffusing alpha-emitters radiation therapy (DaRT) to diffuse the alpha particles over a larger tumor volume. This occurs through the decay of the radium-224 seed, which forms radon gas that perfuses the dose of alpha particles over the tumor. Since cancer cells exhibit high levels of programmed death-1 to deceive the immune system into thinking that the cells are healthy, we administered a PD1 inhibitor as a form of immunotherapy. We hypothesized that coupling alpha radiation and immune checkpoint blockade treatment will lead to better tumor control.

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Oct 26th, 11:30 AM Oct 26th, 1:00 PM

MD Anderson Cancer Center Summer Experience

Given that there still exist cancers that are unresponsive to immunotherapy, high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation offers an alternative solution to bolstering anti-tumor immunity. Linear energy transfer is energy transferred per unit distance. Alpha particles have higher LET than other forms of radiotherapy and can create clustered DNA lesions. A possible component of these lesions is micronuclei, cytoplasmic DNA that can stimulate downstream immunostimulatory mechanisms. Because alpha particles cannot travel far, we utilized diffusing alpha-emitters radiation therapy (DaRT) to diffuse the alpha particles over a larger tumor volume. This occurs through the decay of the radium-224 seed, which forms radon gas that perfuses the dose of alpha particles over the tumor. Since cancer cells exhibit high levels of programmed death-1 to deceive the immune system into thinking that the cells are healthy, we administered a PD1 inhibitor as a form of immunotherapy. We hypothesized that coupling alpha radiation and immune checkpoint blockade treatment will lead to better tumor control.