Is it safe to start immunotherapy concurrently with radiation to a bone metastases?

Retrospective data for palliative RT and immunotherapy doesn’t suggest increased complications with concurrent use

Great question!

This depends on the unique clinical situation with respect to dose, fractionation, and field size. Radiation therapy and immunotherapy in partnership may have the capability of delivering a therapeutic effect exceeding the sum of its parts. The possible relationship has now been demonstrated in murine models and has been extended to a variety of clinical trials. Though the standard notion of whole body radiation therapy is immunosuppressive, there is growing evidence toward the contrary for focal radiation therapy. Furthermore, if immunotherapeutic techniques can retune the immune system against cancerous cells, they should have obvious benefits for advanced treatments moving forward.
Agassi et al., PMID 25525842 deeply revie...