Can radiation improve the success of immunotherapies to treat cancer? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Immunotherapies have proven very successful in the treatment of different types of cancer, but over time it is common for resistance to develop. Valsamo Anagnostou, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, has found that radiation may help activate someone’s own immune response to attack the cancer. 

Anagnostou: The majority of patients unfortunately develop resistance. There are some patients that because of the makeup of the tumor are less likely to attain responses to immunotherapy. Some of these tumors are just what we call cold. They don't have enough immune cells so there's nothing to activate. When you come after with immunotherapy we've been interested in ways to make these cold tumors hot and then sensitize them to  immunotherapy. Radiation can actually induce this cold to heart conversion.    :33

Anagosotou says metastatic disease can respond to this strategy. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.