ECCO 2017 | Rethinking our approach to radiation – radiation as part of the immuno-based treatments

Kevin Harrington, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, FRCP, PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK gives an overview of his talk on the integration of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in immuno-based treatment held at the European Cancer Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Prof. Harrington explains that it has been known for many years that radiation is an effective treatment against cancer and it was thought, that it is simply killing cancer cells. More recently, it has become clear that radiation is able to kill cancer cells in a way that activates immune responses against the cancer. Prof. Harrington discusses the current evidence and explains that we are having to rethink our approach to radiation and consider it as part of the immunotherapy spectrum of treatments.