Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30401936›Full record

ReviewNature reviews. Clinical oncology2019

Time to abandon single-site irradiation for inducing abscopal effects.

Eric D Brooks, Joe Y Chang

2 registry-linked trialsAbstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Nature reviews. Clinical oncology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 187 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
187citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03812549 phase1completednot on this map

Multi-center Phase I Study of Sintilimab in Combination With Radiotherapy in Treatment Naive PD-L1 Positive Stage IV Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

TypeinterventionalSponsorSichuan UniversityRan2019 to 2022Enrolled29ConditionsStage IV NSCLCArmsSintilimab, stereotactic body radiation therapy, Low Dose Radiotherapy
NCT07297004 phase2recruitingnot on this mapstarted 2025, after this paper: background citation

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Unresectable Locally Recurrent Rectal Cancer: A Prospective, Single-arm, Phase II Study

TypeinterventionalSponsorSixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen UniversityRan2025 to 2026Enrolled20ConditionsUnresectable Locally Recurrent Rectal CancerArmsStereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

187 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  16. Randomized Phase II Trial of Nivolumab With Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy Versus Nivolumab Alone in Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2021
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  20. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination Improved Survival in NSCLC Treated With Radiotherapy.Journal of thoracic oncology : official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer · 2026
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127 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Eric D BrooksDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Unit 97, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
Joe Y ChangDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Unit 97, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. jychang@mdanderson.org.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Considerable interest is being directed toward combining immune-checkpoint inhibition (ICI) with radiotherapy to improve response rates to ICI, which have been disappointingly low at around 15-30% among patients with advanced-stage cancers other than melanoma. Since a case report published in 2012, in which authors described the resolution of metastatic disease after irradiation of a single lesion in a patient who had been receiving ICI, hundreds of clinical trials have been launched with the aim of testing the safety and/or efficacy of radiotherapy in combination with immunotherapy, nearly all of which use this single-site irradiation, or 'abscopal', approach. However, emerging preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that this approach likely produces suboptimal results. In this Perspective, we describe this evidence and provide a biological rationale supporting the abandonment of the single-site abscopal approach. We instead advocate exploring comprehensive irradiation of multiple/all lesions in order to enhance the likelihood of obtaining meaningful clinical outcomes - if such a clinical synergy between radiation and ICI does exist - before the failure of the current, single-site approach leads to the potential premature and inappropriate abandonment of radiotherapy in combination with ICI altogether.

Indexed as

Antineoplastic Agents, ImmunologicalClinical Trials as TopicCombined Modality TherapyEvidence-Based MedicineHumansImmunotherapyNeoplasmsPatient SelectionRadiotherapyTreatment OutcomeAntineoplastic Agents, Immunological

Identifiers

PMID30401936

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.