Combined Treatment of Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy for Urological Malignancies: Current Evidence and Clinical Considerations

Abstract

Although it has always been believed that radiation has immunosuppressive effects, more and more preclinical and clinical trials have shown that the combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy has a potential synergistic effect to treat cancers including urological malignancies. When radiotherapy is combined with immunotherapy, improved prognosis has been observed in different urinary tumors. However, there is no standard treatment, such as the optimal dose/fractionation and the sequence of immunotherapy and radiotherapy. In this review, we discussed the effects of radiotherapy on the cancer immune system and emphasized the synergy of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy. Although it has significantly improved the prognosis of tumors, there are still some unresolved questions about how to best use this combination in clinical practice. Ongoing trials will provide further information on the interaction of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy, and are expected to guide clinical practice and improve clinical outcomes.

Keywords:

• radiotherapy
• immunotherapy
• urological malignancies
• abscopal effect

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.