Professor @UChicago @LudwigCancer investigating oligometastatic disease & radiation/immunotherapy interactions
Chicago, IL
Joined September 2020
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1/ Our latest - @JAMAOncology Viewpoint! Ablative radiotherapy has a dual effect on metastatic cancer that changes how we should interpret progression after treatment.
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
Sean Pitroda, whose work has raised concerns about the Badscopal effect, shares a few words of wisdom at #ASTRO26. Including the importance of total metastatic ablation of all visible sites in case irradiation of one tumor signals another unirradiated to grow.
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
#radonc has gigantic oppurtunity to improve care in metastatic cancer. But we need to understand our impact on the biology more — great session by @jeremy_setton @Samuel_Bakhoum , @CJTsaiMDPhD , @SeanPitroda — trying to unravel how to move biology in this space into the clinic #astro26
#ASTRO26
Accela and the neo. Proud for @RadOncUH to be the first center in the world to enroll a patient on a trial with this amazing tech.
@DrAndrewLoblaw @alison_tree @ASTRO_org @AmarUKishan @cwspeers @DrewMoghanaki @freddyeescorcia @EvanThomas84 @EricTopol @montypal @neerajaiims @wandering_gu @PGrivasMDPhD @shilpaonc @TylerSbrt @DrChoueiri @piet_ost @sueyom @jamesbyu @NehaVapiwala @NRGonc @nytimes @washingtonpost @EricTopol @urotoday @SbrtSean
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
🔥Hot off the press: A new study in @Cancer_Cell from Dr. Weichselbaum (@rweichselbaum) and colleagues show how high-dose radiation increases TET2 expression, activating immunosuppressive MDSCs to drive tumor progression. @UChicagoRadonc @UChicagoMed
ow.ly/zj6J50ZOR6z
Out in @Cancer_Cell: TET2 inhibition reprograms myeloid cells to potentiate radiotherapy and curb metastasis
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
@rweichselbaum
@UChicagoRadonc
@UChicagoMed
@Ludwig_Cancer
@hhmi_science
1/5 Our recent study (nature.com/articles/s41586-0…) identified AREG, a radiation-induced factor that can drive the growth of unirradiated metastases after SABR. 🧵
4/5 That's a therapeutic opening. AREG is targetable, via antibody neutralization or genetic blockade, alongside pushing toward truly ablative dosing.
5/5 SABR works, and the data confirm it. Our findings point to how we sharpen it further, refining a proven therapy, not undermining it.
@rweichselbaum @UCCancerCenter @UChicagoRadonc
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
Who among patients with mCRC still has a chance for cure? Honored to see @captodayonline feature the science behind PersonaCRC and the pioneering work of @rweichselbaum @SeanPitroda captodayonline.com/in-select…
#ColorectalCancer #PrecisionOncology #Pathology #AI #CancerResearch
Congrats to @rweichselbaum and team on their @ScienceAdvances paper: engineering probiotic Bifidobacterium as a "bugs as drugs" platform to deliver tumor-targeted IL-2 and boost RT, chemo, and immunotherapy responses in pancreatic cancer. @UChicagoMed
science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
We are pleased to share PersonaCRC - the first clinically validated biomarker for oligometastatic CRC - is available to order: persona-dx.com/how-it-works
Based on prior work from our group:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2972…
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3747…
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3624…
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
Hot Topics in Lung Cancer Basic and Translational Research is coming up! Submit your abstract by april 15 and come and visit in (hopefully) sunny Dublin!
Speakers include Drew Pardoll, @FSkoulidis @DrJNaidoo @CottrellLab @SeanPitroda among a glittering line up! #lcsm
Contribute to the conversation at #HT26
Explore #immunotherapy resistance alongside leading experts.
📍 Dublin, Ireland | June 26–27
Register & submit your abstract: bit.ly/3NbSROT
#LungCancer
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
@SeanPitroda speaking in the Radiotherapy Overcome Immunotherapy Resistance Session @the_RSS 2026
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
IFN signaling at the nexus of the radiotherapy response in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors: doi.org/10.1172/JCI202266
Sean P. Pitroda @SeanPitroda, Ralph Weichselbaum @rweichselbaum & team @UChicago provide a Commentary on Iowis Zhu et al.: doi.org/10.1172/JCI195652
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
💬 Viewpoint: The badscopal effect following ablative radiotherapy signals not failure but biological reorganization, prompting serial metastasis-directed therapy in selected patients. ja.ma/4k0HzJk
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
Radiotherapy duality in metastatic disease: inhibiting seeding, unmasking dormancy
Viewpoint | jamanetwork.com/journals/jam…
@SeanPitroda @rweichselbaum @JAMAOnc @JAMANetwork
Key insights
🟢 Metastasis-directed radiotherapy (MDT) suppresses metastatic seeding from treated lesions
🟢 Ablative RT can unmask dormant distant disease (“badscopal effect”) rather than promote spread
🟢 Post-MDT progression reflects biological reorganization, not treatment failure
🟢 Radiation reshapes systemic immunity (amphiregulin-mediated), enabling dormant clone outgrowth
🟢 Metastatic disease should be viewed as dynamic and iterable, not static
Clinical implications
🟢 Strong rationale for serial MDT, not one-time local therapy
🟢 Explains limited benefit in trials restricting MDT to a single round
🟢 Supports treat-all-visible-disease strategies when feasible
🟢 Calls for MDT personalization using immune phenotype, clonality, and metastatic kinetics
@seanmcbride @drjefstathiou
@SeanPitroda @rweichselbaum
@JAMAOnc @JAMANetwork
@seanmcbride @drjefstathiou
#Radiotherapy #OligometastaticDisease #Metastasis #CancerBiology #MDT #Oncology #JAMAOncology
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
I think Sean's thinking here has been clear from the get go. There's no claim of accelerated progression of non-irradiated mets in the SBRT arm compared to the non-SBRT arm.
The claim is simply that one biological driver of out-of-field progression, when it occurs post-SBRT, acknowledging it occurs LESS FREQUENTLY in the SBRT arms of the trials mentioned, may be amphiregulin driven immune suppression. His work has identified a druggable target that may make the SBRT arms of oligomet trials even more successful than they've already been. Kudos to him! #radonc
Sean Pitroda, M.D. retweeted
In a viewpoint, Sean Pitroda, MD and Ralph Weichselbaum, MD emphasizes the need to personalize treatment based on tumor biology, immune profiles, and metastatic patterns rather than relying on a single treatment. @SeanPitroda @rweichselbaum @LudwigCancer
ow.ly/BGBL50XvWcf
Read the full Viewpoint: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam…
@rweichselbaum @UCCancerCenter @UChicagoMed @UChicagoRadonc @JAMAOnc @Nature