Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, September 26, 2022
Radiation Immunodynamics in the Treatment of Patients with Glioblastoma
Lindsey Sloan, MD PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Minnesota
Our current understanding of immune toxicity from treatment with standard fractionated radiation therapy in patients with glioblastoma is not well understood. Given the important role of the immune system in cancer, an appreciation for the impact of our therapeutic modalities is needed, as this information may be important in guiding the development of future immunotherapies for patients with this aggressive cancer type. Limited evidence suggests that myeloid cell populations in the peripheral blood may be prognostically important in patients with glioblastoma, but few longitudinal analyses involving human patients undergoing standard chemoradiotherapy exist.
Through this seminar, we will review what is known about alterations in peripheral immune cell populations in patients receiving radiotherapy and present new findings that add to our knowledge of treatment-related immune suppression.