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Cancer therapy

A macrophage-activated abscopal effect

Combinations of immune-checkpoint blockade and radiotherapy to modulate antitumor immunity have mainly focused on manipulating T cells. A study now shows that combining radiotherapy with activation of macrophages yields potent, abscopal effects in mouse tumor models that may be ready for translation into early clinical trials.

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Fig. 1: Effect of combined radiation therapy and CD47 blockade.

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Correspondence to Christopher A. Barker.

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Competing interests

C.A.B. has received consulting fees from Regeneron and leads contracted research supported by Regeneron, Alpha Tau Medical, Merck, Amgen, Elekta and EMD Serono.

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Barker, C.A., Riaz, N. A macrophage-activated abscopal effect. Nat Cancer 3, 1282–1283 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00464-0

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