Dying cell clearance and its impact on the outcome of tumor radiotherapy
The induction of tumor cell death is one of the major goals of radiotherapy and has been considered to be the central determinant of its therapeutic outcome for a long time. However, accumulating evidence suggests that the success of radiotherapy does not only derive from direct cytotoxic effects on...
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Published in | Frontiers in oncology Vol. 2; p. 116 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Research Foundation
2012
Frontiers Media S.A |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The induction of tumor cell death is one of the major goals of radiotherapy and has been considered to be the central determinant of its therapeutic outcome for a long time. However, accumulating evidence suggests that the success of radiotherapy does not only derive from direct cytotoxic effects on the tumor cells alone, but instead might also depend - at least in part - on innate as well as adaptive immune responses, which can particularly target tumor cells that survive local irradiation. The clearance of dying tumor cells by phagocytic cells of the innate immune system represents a crucial step in this scenario. Dendritic cells and macrophages, which engulf, process and present dying tumor cell material to adaptive immune cells, can trigger, skew, or inhibit adaptive immune responses, respectively. In this review we summarize the current knowledge of different forms of cell death induced by ionizing radiation, the multi-step process of dying cell clearance, and its immunological consequences with special regard toward the potential exploitation of these mechanisms for the improvement of tumor radiotherapy. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Frontiers in Molecular and Cellular Oncology, a specialty of Frontiers in Oncology. Reviewed by: Patrizia Rovere Querini, Fondazione Centro San Raffaele del Monte Tabor and Vita-Salute University, Italy; Ian Dransfield, University of Edinburgh, UK Edited by: Udo S. Gaipl, University Hospital Erlangen, Germany |
ISSN: | 2234-943X 2234-943X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fonc.2012.00116 |