Purpose: Improved antitumor responses have been observed in patients after combination radiation therapy (RT) and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Whether these clinical responses are linked to the host systemic immune system has not been elucidated.
Methods And Materials: In this single-institution prospective observational study, peripheral blood was longitudinally collected from 10 patients with metastatic disease who had responded to anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 ICB and received RT (8-50 Gy in 1-5 fractions) upon disease progression at the following timepoints: baseline (pre-RT), 1 to 2 weeks post-RT, and post-ICB (cycle 1) on reintroduction post-RT.