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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Ayman J. Oweida

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Guest Editor

Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiobiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N4, Canada
Interests: cancer; immunotherapy; immuno-oncology; immunology; tumor microenvironment; radiotherapy; radioresistance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Undoubtedly, the treatment of cancer will continue to require multimodal therapy for the forseeable future. The combination of two major pillars of cancer treatment, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, has opened the door to numerous treatment possibilities. Each pillar is unique in its own way and advancing at a fast rate. Yet, radioimmunotherapy (RIT) also presents a unique set of challenges: When should RIT be used and what criteria should be applied? What type of immunotherapy should be used in combination with RT? What dose and fractionation regimen should be used with a selected immunotherapy? How should the two therapies be arranged and at what frequency: sequential, concurrent? Which cell population(s) is involved with each therapy and how do these cell populations interact when the two therapies are combined? What pathways are implicated and does acquired resistance develop? These are some of the questions that need to be addressed in order to advance the field of RIT. In this Special Issue, titled Combining Immunotherapy with Radiotherapy for Cancer Treatment: Current Challenges and Future Directions, we wish to shed light on the emerging field of RIT. We are eager to read your submissions and publish them in this Special Issue.

Dr. Ayman J. Oweida
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

radiotherapy
immunotherapy
immune checkpoint blockade
stereotactic ablative radiotherapy
abscopal effect
immune cells
adaptive immunity
innate immunity

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 1110 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Durvalumab as Consolidation Therapy in Post-Concurrent Chemoradiation (CCRT) in Unresectable Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients: A Multicenter Observational Study

by Chin-Chou Wang, Li-Chung Chiu, Jia-Shiuan Ju, Yu-Ching Lin, Yueh-Fu Fang, Cheng-Ta Yang and Ping-Chih Hsu

Vaccines 2021, 9(10), 1122; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/vaccines9101122 - 01 Oct 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2358

Abstract

Background: The experience of using consolidation durvalumab in post-concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is rare in real-world clinical practice, and the factors associated with its efficacy are also unclear. We sought to analyze the efficacy of consolidation durvalumab and the factors associated with its efficacy using a multicenter observational study. Methods: The data for 61 patients with post-CCR unresectable stage III NSCLC receiving consolidation durvalumab at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospitals in Linkou, Keelung, Chiayi, and Kaohsiung from November 2017 to March 2020 were analyzed. (3) Results: The median post-CCRT progression-free survival (PFS) and time to metastatic disease or death (TMDD) for consolidation durvalumab were 14.0 months and 16.7 months, respectively. In multiple variant factors analysis, we found that an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation was an independently unfavorable predictive factor for consolidation durvalumab therapy regarding PFS. The median post-CCRT PFS was 6.50 months for EGFR-mutated patients and 33.63 months for EGFR wild-type and unknown patients (HR = 10.47; 95% CI, 4.55–24.07; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Consolidation durvalumab is effective and safe for post-CCRT unresectable stage III NSCLC in clinical practice, but EGFR mutation is an unfavorable factor for consolidation durvalumab. Thus, searching for a better consolidation therapy for EGFR-mutated patients is warranted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combining Immunotherapy with Radiotherapy for Cancer Treatment: Current Challenges and Future Directions)

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Review

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15 pages, 547 KiB

Open AccessReview

Toll-Like Receptors and the Response to Radiotherapy in Solid Tumors: Challenges and Opportunities

by Ryma Haroun, Sahar Naasri and Ayman J. Oweida

Vaccines 2023, 11(4), 818; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/vaccines11040818 - 07 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2814

Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are indispensable for the activation, maintenance and halting of immune responses. TLRs can mediate inflammation by recognizing molecular patterns in microbes (pathogen-associated molecular patterns: PAMPs) and endogenous ligands (danger-associated molecular patterns: DAMPs) released by injured or dead cells. For this reason, TLR ligands have attracted much attention in recent years in many cancer vaccines, alone or in combination with immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy (RT). TLRs have been shown to play controversial roles in cancer, depending on various factors that can mediate tumor progression or apoptosis. Several TLR agonists have reached clinical trials and are being evaluated in combination with standard of care therapies, including RT. Despite their prolific and central role in mediating immune responses, the role of TLRs in cancer, particularly in response to radiation, remains poorly understood. Radiation is recognized as either a direct stimulant of TLR pathways, or indirectly through the damage it causes to target cells that subsequently activate TLRs. These effects can mediate pro-tumoral and anti-tumoral effects depending on various factors such as radiation dose and fractionation, as well as host genomic features. In this review, we examine how TLR signaling affects tumor response to RT, and we provide a framework for the design of TLR-based therapies with RT. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combining Immunotherapy with Radiotherapy for Cancer Treatment: Current Challenges and Future Directions)

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