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Development of a Model to Study the Abscopal Effect: Combining Image-guided Radiation Therapy and Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatment

Distant metastases are a limiting factor in cancer patient survival as they are least accessible to conventional therapies. Effective therapy should treat primary tumours and metastatic disease. Use of image-guided radiation therapy (IGRx) enables high doses of radiation to be delivered for better tumour control while minimizing toxicity to healthy tissues. Systemic effects on distant non-irradiated tissues have been observed following IGRx. This phenomenon, termed the abscopal effect, is hypothesized to be mediated by the immune system. The inflammatory milieu generated following IGRx may activate immune cells to mount specific anti-tumour responses. The work described in this thesis aims to develop a model to study the abscopal effect, and evaluate the potential of combining IGRx and immunotherapy to enhance such distant tumour killing. Results from these studies may have clinical implications, where a combined IGRx and immunotherapy approach may prove useful in eliciting regression of local tumours and distant metastases.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25869
Date12 January 2011
CreatorsMoretti, Amanda
ContributorsMedin, Jeffrey A., Jaffray, David A.
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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