{"id":940098,"date":"2026-10-20T13:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940098\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:46:11","slug":"lung-cancer-new-approach-to-reduce-radiation-related-damage-healthcare-in-europe-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940098\/","title":{"rendered":"Lung cancer: new approach to reduce radiation-related damage \u2022 healthcare-in-europe.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Portrait<\/a><\/p>\n

Heather McGee, M.D., Ph.D.<\/p>\n

Image source: City of Hope\u00a0<\/p>\n

When healthy lung tissue is damaged, the effects can be severe and long-lasting. Up to 20% of patients struggle with debilitating breathing difficulties and reduced quality of life, leaving some patients tethered to heavy oxygen tanks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMany researchers in our field study how radiation activates well-known immune cells such as T cells to fight cancer,\u201d said corresponding author Heather McGee, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the departments of radiation oncology and immuno-oncology at City of Hope. \u201cWe are the first group to show that radiation also reprograms rare immune cells called innate lymphoid cells, and that these cells play a key role in driving damage to healthy lung tissue.\u201d Dr. McGee leads a team of scientists investigating the role innate lymphoid cells play in the response to radiation. To better understand how radiation damages healthy lung tissue, her laboratory developed a mouse model of radiation-induced lung injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using advanced techniques to track radiation’s impact on the immune system, her team observed three key findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, radiation provoked a dramatic transformation in innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), causing them to adopt different identities and alter their functions. One type of ILC, called ILC2s, helps protect the lungs from damage. Radiation transformed these cells into another type, called ILC1s, which promotes inflammation that damages healthy lung tissue.\u00a0Second, the researchers discovered what drives this transformation. Radiation increased levels of a signaling protein called interferon-beta (IFN-beta), which acted as the switch that pushed protective ILC2 cells to become inflammatory ILC1 cells. Tests on human ILCs showed similar biological changes. \u201cMuch like a player switching teams, radiation-induced IFN-beta can shift these immune cells from a protective role to one that promotes inflammation,\u201d Dr. McGee said. \u201cOur findings shed light on a previously unknown mechanism that leads to radiation-induced lung damage.\u201d\u00a0Third, the researchers tested whether blocking the IFN-beta signaling pathway during radiation could stop the harmful immune cell transformation. In mice, disrupting this pathway reduced inflammation, limited lung injury and decreased the fibrosis that can permanently scar healthy lung tissue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that high levels of IFN-beta contribute to the development of lung damage during radiation and that blocking this signaling pathway could offer a potential treatment to reduce this debilitating side effect,\u201d said Jaeho Kim, M.D., Ph.D., first author of the study and a radiation oncology postdoctoral fellow at City of Hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the team\u2019s approach proves effective in people, it could protect patients from long-term lung damage, expand radiation options for individuals with chronic lung conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)<\/a> and enable more aggressive radiation treatment when needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source: City of Hope\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heather McGee, M.D., Ph.D. Image source: City of Hope\u00a0 When healthy lung tissue is damaged, the effects can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,322171,322170],"class_list":["post-940098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-published-in-natcomms-nature-com","tag-x-led-by-hmcgeemdphd-from-cityofhope-brcityofhope-brcityofhope-bsky-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}