Microwave ablation enhances tumor-specific immune response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Thermal ablative therapies are standard treatments for localized hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In addition to local tumor destruction, ablation leads to abscopal effects in distant lesions most likely mediated by an anti-tumor immune response. Although microwave ablation (MWA) is increasingly substituting other ablative techniques, its systemic immunostimulatory effects are poorly studied. We analyzed tumor-specific immune responses in peripheral blood of HCC patients after thermal ablation with regard to T cell responses and disease outcome. While comprehensive flow cytometric analyses in sequential samples of a prospective patient cohort (n = 23) demonstrated only moderate effects of MWA on circulating immune cell subsets, fluorospot analyses of specific T cell responses against seven

SUBMITTER: Leuchte K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7979675 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature