DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003649 , 137ra74 (2012); 4 Sci Transl Med et al. Steven K. Seung Tumor and Immunological Responses -- Phase 1 Study of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy and Interleukin-2 Editor's Summary melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. this study suggests that the rational combination of SBRT and IL-2 may improve upon current therapies for metastatic of these patients. Although studies with more patients and more detailed mechanistic follow-up must be performed, alone. Intriguingly, they found a greater frequency of proliferating early effector memory T cells in the peripheral blood IL-2 combination therapy was safe, and, albeit in a small number of patients, appeared to have improved efficacy over microenvironment changes that should enhance the immune-activating effects of IL-2. They found that the as well as the still to be proven hypothesis that radiation damage induces tumor antigen release and combine high-dose IL-2 with targeted radiation therapy based on clinical observation of enhanced efficacy in patients combination with various drugs for melanoma and renal cell carcinoma, with limited success. Here, the authors IL-2, an immune activator, has been long used in the clinic either as a single-agent immunotherapy or in interleukin-2 (IL-2) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). -- trial on one such rationally combined therapy conduct a phase 1 et al. cause harm. Thus, there is a need for rationally designed combination therapy. Here, Seung two treatments may not necessarily be better than one and may even -- combining even drugs already in the clinic drugs to improve efficacy and prevent resistance is becoming the norm. However, care must be taken when of all deaths every year. It is becoming increasingly clear that monotherapies are not the answer, and combining Despite decades of research into causes and potential therapies for cancer, cancers still account for almost 13% Let's Work Together http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/137/137ra74.full.html can be found at: and other services, including high-resolution figures, A complete electronic version of this article http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2012/06/04/4.137.137ra74.DC1.html can be found in the online version of this article at: Supplementary Material http://www.sciencemag.org/about/permissions.dtl in whole or in part can be found at: article permission to reproduce this of this article or about obtaining reprints Information about obtaining is a registered trademark of AAAS. Science Translational Medicine rights reserved. The title NW, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2012 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all last week in December, by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue (print ISSN 1946-6234; online ISSN 1946-6242) is published weekly, except the Science Translational Medicine on June 6, 2012 stm.sciencemag.org Downloaded from