The Current and Future Promises of Combination Radiation and Immunotherapy for Genitourinary Cancers

Abstract

As the indications for the use of immunotherapy in genitourinary malignancies expand, its role in combination with standard or conventional therapies has become the subject of contemporary studies. Radiotherapy has multiple immunomodulating effects on anti-tumor immune response, which highlights potential synergistic role with immunotherapy agents. We sought to review the body of published data studying the combination of immunotherapy and radiotherapy as well as the rationale for combination therapy. Trial information and primary articles were obtained using the following terms “immunotherapy”, “radiotherapy”, “prostate cancer”, and “bladder cancer.” All articles and trials were screened to ensure they included combination radiotherapy and immunotherapy. The effects of radiation on the immune system, including both immunogenic and immunosuppressive effects, have been reported. There is a potential for combinatorial or synergistic effects between radiation therapy and immunotherapy in treating bladder and prostate cancers. However, results from ongoing and future clinical trials are needed to best integrate immunotherapy into current standard of care treatments for GU cancers.

The role of E3 ubiquitin ligases and deubiquitinases in bladder cancer development and immunotherapy

“…Chemoimmunotherapy is the key strategy for bladder cancer with metastatic feature (8). The treatment of immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors has not shown the good efficacy in bladder cancer patients (9). However, bladder cancer exhibits immune evasion and poor outcomes, suggesting that novel therapies need to be developed for treating bladder cancer (10).…”

UBA1 inhibition contributes radiosensitization of glioblastoma cells via blocking DNA damage repair

“…Radiation therapy is a curative treatment for many malignancies and is usually combined with other therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and traditional therapy ( Wang and Tepper, 2021 ; Zhang and Xiao, 2021 ; Saidian et al, 2022 ). Radiotherapy resistance refers to the tumor gradually adapting to the corresponding physical and chemical environment changes in the course of radiotherapy to resist the killing effect of radiation, which greatly limits the clinical application of radiotherapy ( Wang et al, 2020 ; Li R. Q. et al, 2022 ).…”