Andreas Rimner, MD, on Immunotherapy Combined with Radiation in Lung Cancer

Andreas Rimner, MD, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discussed exciting improvements in systemic therapies for lung cancer – in particular the combination of immunotherapy and radiation – at the 14th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium^®, held November 9.

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So, I think this area of immunotherapy in combination with radiation is probably the most exciting right now. We have several ongoing trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering combining immunotherapy and radiation, combining radiation even in stage IV, in the stage IV setting with immunotherapy where immunotherapy is standard. And we are seeing more and more what we call oligoprogressors, meaning patients that develop 1 or 2 or a few lesions that appear to have become resistant to the systemic treatments, to the medical treatments, and that we can treat with stereotactic, very precise radiation techniques. I think that is an area that is quickly emerging in the context of improved systemic therapies.

On the radiation side, we have a lot of emerging technology which sometimes gets forgotten in the setting of all this exciting medical therapy. But we really have to understand and integrate proton therapy, MR linear accelerators that can provide MRI guided radiation therapy in the context of these new drugs.