T cells at work

Cancer Combining the three pillars of cancer treatment—surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy—has greatly improved patient survival. With the recent development of effective cancer immunotherapies, oncologists now have a fourth pillar to consider in designing combination treatments. Previous work had suggested that radiotherapy damages T cells, leading to the perception that combining radiotherapy and immunotherapy would be ineffective. Studying mouse models of tumors that are already infiltrated with T cells, Arina et al. find that these T cells not only survive localized radiotherapy but also maintain excellent antitumor activity. This is because T cell reprogramming is facilitated by the tumor microenvironment. If human tumors behave in the same way, then we can expect more effective combinations of cancer treatments to be developed. Nat. Commun. 10 , 3959 (2019).