FLASH radiation therapy mitigates immunogenic and pro-fibrotic transcriptomic responses in healthy lung tissue.

Arrigo, Adrien; Brants, Louize; Vanreusel, Verdi; Stevens, Piet; Colijn, Arnaud; Meijnders, Paul; Verellen, Dirk; Poortmans, Philip et al. · Radiother Oncol · 2026

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

To investigate why FLASH-radiation therapy (RT) minimises lung damage, we performed bulk RNA-sequencing at 24 h and 2 weeks post-irradiation. Unlike conventional dose-rate RT, FLASH did not induce acute chemokine enrichment associated with NFKB1 upregulation and prevented sustained transcriptional activation of genes involved in macrophage activation, chemotaxis, and differentiation.