Dataset for: Radiation therapy induces innate immune responses in patients treated for prostate cancers

Purpose Radiation therapy (RT) is a curative therapeutic modality used to
treat cancers as a single agent or in combination with surgery and
chemotherapy. Advanced RT technologies enable treatment with large
fraction, highly conformal, radiation doses to effect free-radical damage
to cellular DNA leading to cell cycle arrest, cell death, and innate
immune response stimulation. Experimental Design To understand systemic
clinical responses after radiation exposure, high throughput proteomic and
metabolomic analyses were performed on plasma obtained from cancer
patients at intervals after prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy.
Pathway analysis and multivariate analyses were used to delineate
molecular alterations following radiation therapy and its correlation with
clinical outcomes. Results DNA Damage Response (DDR) and cell cycle
signaling increased within the first hour after treatment and returned to
baseline by one month. Innate immune response signaling also increased
within one hour of treatment but persisted for up to three months
thereafter. Furthermore, robust immune responses and metabolite
elevations, consistent with an early proinflammatory M1-mediated innate
immune activation, were observed in patients in remission, whereas
patients experiencing PSA-determined disease progression demonstrated less
robust immune responses and M2-mediated metabolite elevations.
Conclusion/Discussion To our knowledge, these data are the first report of
longitudinal proteomic and metabolomic molecular responses in patients
after radiation therapy for cancers. The data supports innate immune
activation as a critical clinical response of patients receiving radiation
therapy for prostate cancer. Furthermore, we propose that the observed
innate immune responses may be generalized to the treatment of other
cancer types, potentially informing multidisciplinary therapeutic
strategies for cancer treatment.