Abstract
Current tumor thermal ablation techniques rely on extreme temperatures to induce irreversible
cellular injury and coagulative tissue necrosis. Ablation-induced cellular injury
or death releases cancer neoantigens and activates the cancer-immunity cycle, potentially
generating tumor-specific immune effectors. However, multiple negative regulatory
modulators exist at each step of the cycle, mitigating meaningful and therapeutic
anticancer effect provided by the immune system. Recent studies have focused on the
introduction and testing of adjuvant immunotherapy combined with ablation to synergistically
shift the equilibrium out of inhibitory immune modulation. This article reviews the
immune microenvironment in relation to image-guided ablation techniques and discusses
current and upcoming novel strategies to take advantage of antitumor immunity.
Keywords
immune microenvironment - ablation - interventional oncology - immunotherapy
