ReviewCureus2019
Abscopal Effect of Radiotherapy in the Immunotherapy Era: Systematic Review of Reported Cases.
Review in Cureus, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Improved survival outcome with not-delayed radiotherapy and immediate PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor for non-small-cell lung cancer patients with brain metastases.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2023Pooled it
- A phase II study of atezolizumab in combination with stereotactic radiation for patients with triple-negative breast cancer and brain metastasis.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2026Trial
- The efficacy and safety of PD-1 inhibitors combined withFrontiers in medicine · 2025Trial
- A randomized phase II clinical trial of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and systemic pembrolizumab with or without intratumoral avelumab/ipilimumab plus CD1c (BDCA-1)Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2024Trial
- Atezolizumab and stereotactic body radiotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: safety, clinical activity and ctDNA responses-the ComIT-1 trial.Molecular oncology · 2023Trial
- Pembrolizumab and SBRT for vaginal cuff recurrence of endometrial carcinoma with regression beyond the radiation field.Gynecologic oncology reports · 2026Article
- Unexpected Therapeutic Implications: The Abscopal Effect in the Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Cancers · 2026Review
- Iodine-125 brachytherapy triggers immunogenic cell death and potentiates anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy in bone metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Towards a personalized utilization of stereotactic body radiotherapy for the management of liver metastases in solid tumors.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2025Review
- Emerging Applications of Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy in Oligometastatic Colorectal Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Musculoskeletal abscopal effect: a review of the important imaging findings and their clinical relevance.Skeletal radiology · 2025Review
- The role of the complement system in the response to cytotoxic therapy.Seminars in immunology · 2025Review
- Efficacy of innovative systemic treatments in combination with radiotherapy for bone metastases: a GEMO (the European Study Group of Bone Metastases) state of the art.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2025Review
- Potential immunogenic modulation of hypo-fractionated radiotherapy at optimal schedules and the subsequent vaccine-like effect of local irradiation - a systematic review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Unraveling the synergy of radiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors in NSCLC: emerging clinical evidence and novel therapeutic strategies.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Role of immunotherapy in the overall survival of gastrointestinal cancer patients with liver metastases.Hepatic oncology · 2024Article
- Immunotherapy in the Battle Against Bone Metastases: Mechanisms and Emerging Treatments.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Review
- Radiation drives tertiary lymphoid structures to reshape TME for synergized antitumour immunity.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Complete Favorable Response after Second-Line Immunotherapy in Stage IV Non-Small Lung Cancer with Visceral Metastases and Operated Brain Metastasis.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that radiation stimulates the immune system and this contributes to the abscopal effect, which is defined as "response at a distance from the irradiated volume." Though identified more than 50 years ago, the abscopal effect is revisited today. One rationale is that the abscopal effect is often observed with efficient immunotherapy. Here, we give an overview of the clinical data on the abscopal effect, generated by a combination of immunotherapy and radiotherapy (RT). Only papers that included RT in combination with immunotherapy were evaluated according to four main categories including RT parameters, sequencing of therapies, the definition of the abscopal effect, and patient selection. Twenty-four cases in 15 reports were reviewed. The results varied. Patient ages ranged from 24 to 74. RT dose (median total dose 18-58 Gy) varied. Biologically effective dose (BED) 10 was calculated to be a median 49.65 Gy (28-151 Gy). The time to a documented abscopal response ranged from less than a month to 12 months. The large variation concerning fractionation and sequencing of therapies indicates that these conflicting points need to be resolved, to generate for the abscopal effect to be clinically significant.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.