Effectiveness of radiotherapy and targeted radionuclide therapy for melanoma in preclinical mouse models: A combination treatments overview

Abstract

Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive and highly metastatic skin cancer. In recent years, immunotherapy and targeted small-molecule inhibitors have improved the overall survival of patients. Unfortunately, most patients in advanced stages of disease exhibit either intrinsically resistant or rapidly acquire resistance to these approved treatments. However, combination treatments have emerged to overcome resistance, and novel treatments based on radiotherapy (RT) and targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) have been developed to treat melanoma in the preclinical mouse model, raising the question of whether synergy in combination therapies may motivate and increase their use as primary treatments for melanoma. To help clarify this question, we reviewed the studies in preclinical mouse models where they evaluated RT and TRT in combination with other approved and unapproved therapies from 2016 onwards, focusing on the type of melanoma model used (primary tumor and or metastatic model). PubMed® was the database in which the search was performed using mesh search algorithms resulting in 41 studies that comply with the inclusion rules of screening. Studies reviewed showed that synergy with RT or TRT had strong antitumor effects, such as tumor growth inhibition and fewer metastases, also exhibiting systemic protection. In addition, most studies were carried out on antitumor response for the implanted primary tumor, demonstrating that more studies are needed to evaluate these combined treatments in metastatic models on long-term protocols.

Keywords: Combination treatment; Hypofractionated radiation therapy; Metastasis; Mice; Métastases; Radiotherapy; Radiothérapie; Radiothérapie ciblée; Radiothérapie hypofractionnée; Souris; Targeted radionuclide therapy; Traitement combiné.