Abscopal effect following radiation monotherapy in breast cancer: A case report

Abstract

Radiotherapy has been found to be valuable for the control and eradication of local foci in various malignant tumors. The abscopal effect is determined as a systemic antitumor response at a distance from the irradiation site invoked by local irradiation. We herein present an extremely rare case of breast cancer in a 64-year-old woman, in whom the abscopal effect was observed after radiotherapy induced an antitumor response in all metastatic lesions, without any combination therapy. The patient was admitted to our hospital complaining of a breast mass and pain at the left hip, and was diagnosed with breast cancer with multiple bone, lung and lymph node metastases. She received treatment with local radiotherapy delivered to the breast tumor and some of the bone metastases but did not receive chemotherapy due to her poor performance status. However, 10 months after radiotherapy, spontaneous regression was observed, not only within the irradiated field, but also in the non-irradiated areas. All signs of cancer throughout the body disappeared, and the patient's performance status drastically improved. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of advanced breast cancer cases in which the abscopal effect was observed after radiation monotherapy; therefore, this case report is extremely rare and highly valuable.

Oncolytic measles virus therapy enhances tumor antigen-specific T-cell responses in patients with multiple myeloma

“…Our hypothesis to explain the sustained disease remission post virus administration in this patient, and the fact that neither of her focal recurrences were followed by systemic disease relapse, was that the virotherapy had boosted her antitumor T-cell response and that this response was further boosted after each of the local radiotherapy treatments due Table 1 Positive T-cell responses against tumor-associated antigens before measles virotherapy. to the abscopal effect of radiotherapy, which has been well described in other malignancies [18][19][20]. Interestingly, analysis of T-cell responses in this patient showed high basal response to multiple TAA, which were sustained at all time points post virus administration, even years post virotherapy.…”

An Antitumor Immune Response Is Evoked by Partial-Volume Single-Dose Radiation in 2 Murine Models

“…The results raise the possibility that this effect could be induced in some human tumors. In fact, we have observed several instances in the clinic where partial irradiation of the tumor both combined with immune checkpoint blockade or alone have resulted in complete responses in the tumor despite limited dose to parts of the tumor (38,46,47).…”

Saving the Breast Saves the Lives of Breast Cancer Patients

“…Many studies have confirmed the immunomodulatory effects of local therapy; radiotherapy promotes the immunological system by inducing immunogenic cell death and subsequently increasing the sensitivity of lymphocytes to tumor cells [37,[47][48][49][50]. Studies also have demonstrated that the abscopal effect of local treatment combined with immunotherapy enhances the efficacy of treatment for breast cancer cases in animal models [51].…”