Radiation improves antitumor effect of immune checkpoint inhibitor in murine hepatocellular carcinoma model

// Kyoung-Jin Kim 1 , Ji-Hye Kim 1 , Seo Jin Lee 1 , Eun-Jung Lee 1 , Eui-Cheol Shin 2 and Jinsil Seong 1 1 Department of Radiation Oncology, Yonsei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea 2 Laboratory of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Techonology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea Correspondence to: Jinsil Seong, email: jsseong@yuhs.ac Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, anti-PD-L1, radiation, combination therapy, antitumor effect Received: October 21, 2016      Accepted: March 28, 2017      Published: April 17, 2017 ABSTRACT Background 90% vs. 0% or 30%, respectively, P< 0.001). The underlying mechanism involved increasing apoptosis, decreasing tumor cell proliferation, as well as restoration of CD8 + T cell functions. Conclusions: The combination of anti-PD-L1 and radiation significantly improved the antitumor effect shown in tumor growth delay as well as in survival, supporting a novel combination strategy of immunoradiotherapy in HCC.