The role of radiology in immunotherapy response evaluation

Abstract

Radiology plays a crucial role in the evaluation of therapy response in solid tumors. The two initial criteria, which are the WHO and Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), are insufficient for the assessment of response to immunotherapy. Therefore, recently several immune response criteria, such as immune-related response criteria (irRC), immune-related RECIST (irRECIST), immune RECIST (iRECIST) and immune-modified RECIST (imRECIST), were proposed and applied in clinical trials on immunotherapies. In this review manuscript, more recently defined specific response criteria for immunotherapy, atypical patterns of response to immunotherapy and the imaging of immune-related adverse effects will be presented and discussed.