Lattice or Oxygen-Guided Radiotherapy: What If They Converge? Possible Future Directions in the Era of Immunotherapy

Abstract

Simple SummaryOxygen-guided radiotherapy is a new modality for cancer irradiation. Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy allows the treatment of hypoxic tumor areas with high radiation doses. Radiotherapy enhances immunotherapy effectiveness. Abscopal and bystander effects are important radiobiological issues. The aim of this paper was to analyze the recent development of a particular kind of radiation therapy that is based on high-dose delivery in small areas within large tumor masses. We performed a narrative review of the radiobiological rationale behind a potential benefit by using these techniques combined with immunotherapy and employing personalized target definition according to hypoxic areas.Palliative radiotherapy has a great role in the treatment of large tumor masses. However, treating a bulky disease could be difficult, especially in critical anatomical areas. In daily clinical practice, short course hypofractionated radiotherapy is delivered in order to control the symptomatic disease. Radiation fields generally encompass the entire tumor mass, which is homogeneously irradiated. Recent technological advances enable delivering a higher radiation dose in small areas within a large mass. This goal, previously achieved thanks to the GRID approach, is now achievable using the newest concept of LATTICE radiotherapy (LT-RT). This kind of treatment allows exploiting various radiation effects, such as bystander and abscopal effects. These events may be enhanced by the concomitant use of immunotherapy, with the latter being ever more successfully delivered in cancer patients. Moreover, a critical issue in the treatment of large masses is the inhomogeneous intratumoral distribution of well-oxygenated and hypo-oxygenated areas. It is well known that hypoxic areas are more resistant to the killing effect of radiation, hence the need to target them with higher aggressive doses. This concept introduces the “oxygen-guided radiation therapy” (OGRT), which means looking for suitable hypoxic markers to implement in PET/CT and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Future treatment strategies are likely to involve combinations of LT-RT, OGRT, and immunotherapy. In this paper, we review the radiobiological rationale behind a potential benefit of LT-RT and OGRT, and we summarize the results reported in the few clinical trials published so far regarding these issues. Lastly, we suggest what future perspectives may emerge by combining immunotherapy with LT-RT/OGRT.