Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a relatively new treatment modality in which the immune system of the patient is modulated specifically to control conditions such as autoimmune disease, allergies, or cancer. Therapies may be cell-based (e.g. chimeric antigen receptor T cell-based), antibody-based (e.g. checkpoint inhibitor based), or based on small molecules such as cytokines. Oncolytic viruses and cancer vaccines ¹ can also be used to stimulate the immune system.

Cancer immunotherapies, and especially immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, are of particular interest to radiologists due to variability in responses to therapy, and complications. Radiomics and radiogenomics present potential evaluation tools for response to therapy but are not yet widely adopted ⁵.

See also

• immunosuppression
• opportunistic infections