Figure 1.

Immunostimulation by TAT. Immunologically cold tumors exhibiting robust infiltration by regulatory T (T_REG) cells and M2-like tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), but limited amounts of mature dendritic cells (DCs) and effector T (T_EFF) cells, are generally insensitive to immune checkpoin inhibitors (ICIs). At least in preclinical tumor models, targeted alpha-particle therapy (TAT) has been successfully harnessed to inflame the microenvironment of immunologically cold tumors in support of restored ICI sensitivity, pointing to TAT as to a promising combinatorial partner for ICI-based immunotherapy in the clinical setting. DAMP, damage-associated molecular pattern.