Local irradiation of murine melanoma affects the development of tumour-specific immunity

Radiation therapy affects the immune system. In addition to killing radiosensitive immune cells, it can induce functional changes in those cells that survive. Our recent studies showed that the exposure of dendritic cells (DCs) to radiation in vitro influences their ability to present tumour antigen in vivo. Here we show that local radiation therapy of B16 melanoma tumours inhibits the development of systemic immunity to the melanoma antigen MART-1. This inhibition could not be overcome by intratumoral injection of DCs expressing human MART-1 after radiation therapy, suggesting that a form of immune suppression might have developed. On the other hand, injection of MART-expressing DCs prior to tumour irradiation was able to prevent inhibition from developing. These results suggest that local radiation therapy may block the generation of immunity under some circumstances and that strategies may be required to prevent this and allow radiation-induced cell death to translate fully into the development of systemic immunity.