Report of an abscopal effect induced by stereotactic body radiotherapy and nivolumab in a patient with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: The existence of abscopal effects has been suggested already a long time ago, but only recently with the advent of immune checkpoint inhibition in clinical oncology and modern imaging techniques has it become possible to directly observe such effects in patients. They have been well described in patients with malignant melanoma being treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors and stereotactic radiotherapy, but experience in other malignancies is very limited. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we describe a case of a patient with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, who experienced a complete response secondary to an abscopal effect on treatment with anti-PD-1 therapy and stereotactic body radiotherapy to some of the involved sites. CONCLUSIONS: Our case reports confirms the existence of abscopal effects in NSCLC and suggests synergism between immune-checkpoint inhibition and local ablative RT. We suggest that this approach is now further studied in prospective clinical trials on oligo-metastatic or oligo-progressing NSCLC.