Are unsatisfactory outcomes after concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer due to treatment-related immunosuppression?

Overall survival after radiotherapy (RT) for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) continues to be far from optimal despite recent progress with the use of adjuvant immune checkpoint inhibitors, which has resulted in a 10% increase (from 56% to 66%) in the two-year overall survival (OS) rates [1,2]. Of particular interest, cardio-pulmonary dose has been found to correlate negatively with OS in various LA-NSCLC series, including RTOG 0617 [3 –8]. The primary hypothesis addressed to this correlation has been radiation-induced cardiac toxicity, and a number of studies have thereafter established an association between a range of symptomatic cardiac toxicities and cardiac dose [9–14].
Source: Radiotherapy and Oncology - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research