Moving Beyond the Standard of Care: Accelerate Testing of Radiation-Drug Combinations
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (United States)
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Jacksonville (United States)
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Rochester (United States)
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg (Germany)
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (United States)
Radiation therapy is a major treatment modality used in > 60% of cancer patients as definitive local treatment for inoperable locoregionally confined tumors and as palliative therapy. Although cytotoxic chemotherapy enhances the effectiveness of treatment, the benefit over radiation therapy alone is modest. There is a need to enhance the effectiveness of local tumor control over what sequentially or concurrently administered cytotoxic chemotherapy provides. Although many biological pathways are known to enhance the effectiveness of radiation therapy, there is currently a paucity of drugs approved for use in combination. Several clinical trials have tested the effectiveness of combining targeted agents or immunotherapies with radiation therapy, but the results of these trials have been negative, likely stemming from the relative lack of preclinical evidence using appropriate experimental standardization or model systems. Accelerating the identification of agents tested in an appropriate clinical context and experimental systems or models would greatly enhance the potential to bring forward early testing of drugs that would not only be safe but also more effective. This article provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges of developing therapeutics to combine with radiation therapy, and some guidance toward preclinical and early clinical testing to improve the chance that advanced phase testing of drug-radiation combinations would be successful in the long term.
- OSTI ID:
- 23198459
- Journal Information:
- International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, Journal Name: International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 111; ISSN IOBPD3; ISSN 0360-3016
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Combining radiotherapy and angiogenesis inhibitors: Clinical trial design
Combinations of Radiation Therapy and Immunotherapy for Melanoma: A Review of Clinical Outcomes