With cutting-edge research in the fields of ENERGY, HEALTH and MATTER, around 1,500 employees from more than 70 nations at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are committed to mastering the great challenges facing society today.

The application of ultra-high-dose-rate radiotherapy (FLASH RT) promises reduced normal-tissue side effects while maintaining tumor cure rates similar to those of conventional radiotherapy. There is evidence that a combination of FLASH RT and immunotherapy may be synergistic. This interdisciplinary project is a collaboration among three HZDR institutes (Institute of Radiooncology – OncoRay, Institute of Radiation Physics and Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research). The project aims to evaluate the efficacy of combined proton FLASH radiotherapy and CAR T-cell immunotherapy in vitro and in vivo and to characterize the molecular pathways and biomarkers explaining these effects.

At the Institute of Radiooncology – OncoRay sc...