Scholars@Duke
Amy Wisdom

Selected Publications

Setting the Stage: Feasibility and Baseline Characteristics in the PARTIQoL Trial Comparing Proton Therapy Versus Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · September 30, 2024 PURPOSE: Men with localized prostate cancer may receive either photon-based intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or proton beam therapy (PBT). The PARTIQoL trial (NCT01617161) demonstrates the feasibility of performing a large, multicenter phase 3 ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reply to Nguyen and Kamrava.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · September 1, 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

Enhancing radiotherapy response via intratumoral injection of a TLR9 agonist in autochthonous murine sarcomas.

Journal Article JCI Insight · June 13, 2024 Radiation therapy (RT) is frequently used to treat cancers, including soft-tissue sarcomas. Prior studies established that the toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist cytosine-phosphate-guanine oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG) enhances the response to RT in transpla ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Next Chapter in Immunotherapy and Radiation Combination Therapy: Cancer-Specific Perspectives.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · April 1, 2024 Immunotherapeutic agents have revolutionized cancer treatment over the past decade. However, most patients fail to respond to immunotherapy alone. A growing body of preclinical studies highlights the potential for synergy between radiation therapy and immu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Long-term risk of carotid stenosis and cerebrovascular disease after radiation therapy for head and neck cancer.

Conference Cancer · October 28, 2023 BACKGROUND: Recipients of radiation therapy (RT) for head and neck cancer (HNC) are at significantly increased risk for carotid artery stenosis (CAS) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD). We sought to determine (1) cumulative incidences of CAS and CVD among H ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health-related quality of life analyses in nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenoma patients identifies at-risk populations.

Journal Article Pituitary · August 2023 PurposeThe quality of life (QoL) impact of multidisciplinary treatment for patients with nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFPMA) is unclear. We sought to investigate associations between patient factors, clinical data, and patient-reported ... Full text Cite

Atrx deletion impairs CGAS/STING signaling and increases sarcoma response to radiation and oncolytic herpesvirus.

Journal Article J Clin Invest · July 3, 2023 ATRX is one of the most frequently altered genes in solid tumors, and mutation is especially frequent in soft tissue sarcomas. However, the role of ATRX in tumor development and response to cancer therapies remains poorly understood. Here, we developed a p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Tripartite antigen-agnostic combination immunotherapy cures established poorly immunogenic tumors.

Journal Article J Immunother Cancer · October 2022 BACKGROUND: Single-agent immunotherapy has shown remarkable efficacy in selected cancer entities and individual patients. However, most patients fail to respond. This is likely due to diverse immunosuppressive mechanisms acting in a concerted way to suppre ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Novel Combination of Immunotherapy and Radiation Therapy in a Primary Mouse Model of Soft Tissue Sarcoma With High Mutational Load.

Conference International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · November 2021 Purpose/objective(s)Preclinical studies using transplant tumor models have shown promising results for immunotherapy combined with radiotherapy (RT). However, research using primary tumor models is limited, and results from tumors using transplant ... Full text Cite

Single cell analysis reveals distinct immune landscapes in transplant and primary sarcomas that determine response or resistance to immunotherapy.

Journal Article Nat Commun · December 17, 2020 Immunotherapy fails to cure most cancer patients. Preclinical studies indicate that radiotherapy synergizes with immunotherapy, promoting radiation-induced antitumor immunity. Most preclinical immunotherapy studies utilize transplant tumor models, which ov ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dissecting the Functional Significance of DNA Polymerase Mutations in Cancer.

Journal Article Cancer Res · December 15, 2020 DNA polymerase mutations can cause hypermutant cancers, but the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and the impact of various DNA polymerase mutations on treatment response is poorly understood. In this issue of Cancer Research, Galati and colleagues investigate t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A single cell atlas reveals distinct immune landscapes in transplant and primary tumors that determine response or resistance to immunotherapy

Journal Article · 2020 Despite impressive responses in some patients, immunotherapy fails to cure most cancer patients. Preclinical studies indicate that radiotherapy synergizes with immunotherapy, promoting radiation-induced antitumor immunity. Nearly all preclinical immunother ... Full text Cite

The Na+/K+ATPase Regulates Glycolysis and Modifies Immune Metabolism in Tumors

Journal Article · 2020 Cancer therapies targeting metabolism have been limited due to a lack of understanding of the controlling properties of vulnerable pathways. The Na + /K + ATPase is responsible for a large portion of cellular energy demands but how these demands influence ... Full text Cite

Neutrophils promote tumor resistance to radiation therapy.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · September 10, 2019 Nearly two-thirds of cancer patients are treated with radiation therapy (RT), often with the intent to achieve complete and permanent tumor regression (local control). RT is the primary treatment modality used to achieve local control for many malignancies ... Full text Link to item Cite

Retrospective analysis of safety and efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy and radiation therapy in advanced melanoma: A bi-institutional study.

Journal Article Radiother Oncol · September 2019 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Antibodies against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) are standard treatments for advanced melanoma. Palliative radiation therapy (RT) is commonly administered for this disease. Safety and optimal timing for this combination for ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mutational landscape in genetically engineered, carcinogen-induced, and radiation-induced mouse sarcoma.

Journal Article JCI Insight · July 11, 2019 Cancer development is influenced by hereditary mutations, somatic mutations due to random errors in DNA replication, or external factors. It remains unclear how distinct cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic factors impact oncogenesis within the same tissue type. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rationale and emerging strategies for immune checkpoint blockade in soft tissue sarcoma.

Journal Article Cancer · October 1, 2018 Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are heterogeneous, mesenchymal malignancies with variable biologic behavior. The primary management for localized STS is surgical resection, which may be combined with neoadjuvant or adjuvant radiation therapy to increase the pro ... Full text Link to item Cite

The risk of carotid stenosis in head and neck cancer patients after radiation therapy.

Journal Article Oral Oncol · May 2018 OBJECTIVES: Head and neck radiotherapy (RT) is a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease. We performed a retrospective cohort study to evaluate carotid artery stenosis (CAS) incidence in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients undergoing RT, characterizing ass ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characterizing the Potency and Impact of Carbon Ion Therapy in a Primary Mouse Model of Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

Journal Article Mol Cancer Ther · April 2018 Carbon ion therapy (CIT) offers several potential advantages for treating cancers compared with X-ray and proton radiotherapy, including increased biological efficacy and more conformal dosimetry. However, CIT potency has not been characterized in primary ... Full text Link to item Cite

Genetically engineered mouse models for studying radiation biology.

Journal Article Transl Cancer Res · July 2017 Genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) are valuable research tools that have transformed our understanding of cancer. The first GEMMs generated in the 1980s and 1990s were knock-in and knock-out models of single oncogenes or tumor suppressors. The adv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Labeled with Plasmonic Gold Nanostars for Cellular Tracking and Photothermal Cancer Cell Ablation.

Journal Article Plast Reconstr Surg · April 2017 BACKGROUND: Gold nanostars are unique nanoplatforms that can be imaged in real time and transform light energy into heat to ablate cells. Adipose-derived stem cells migrate toward tumor niches in response to chemokines. The ability of adipose-derived stem ... Full text Link to item Cite

Estrogen receptor-β ligand treatment after disease onset is neuroprotective in the multiple sclerosis model.

Journal Article J Neurosci Res · July 2013 Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation and neurodegeneration. Current MS treatments were designed to reduce inflammation in MS rather than directly to prevent neurodegeneration. Estrogen has well-documented neuroprot ... Full text Link to item Cite

Estrogen mediates neuroprotection and anti-inflammatory effects during EAE through ERα signaling on astrocytes but not through ERβ signaling on astrocytes or neurons.

Journal Article J Neurosci · June 26, 2013 Estrogens can signal through either estrogen receptor α (ERα) or β (ERβ) to ameliorate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the most widely used mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Cellular targets of estrogen-mediated neuroprotection are s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neuroprotection mediated through estrogen receptor-alpha in astrocytes.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · May 24, 2011 Estrogen has well-documented neuroprotective effects in a variety of clinical and experimental disorders of the CNS, including autoimmune inflammation, traumatic injury, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases. The beneficial effects of estrogens in CNS dis ... Full text Link to item Cite