Fig. 2.

Characteristics of immunogenic cell death. When tumor cells succumb to immunogenic cell death (ICD) for example following radiotherapy, they release or expose damage‐associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that stimulate antitumor immune responses. Tumor cells expose the endoplasmic reticulum protein calreticulin (CRT) on their plasma membrane in the pre‐apoptotic stage. They might also expose heat‐shock proteins (HSPs). These factors facilitate the uptake of dying cells by phagocytes. Additionally, tumor cells responding to ICD inducer release adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the nuclear protein high‐mobility group box‐1 (HMGB1) in the extracellular space. Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization enables the release of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) into the cytosol.