COMBINED GENE AND RADIO THERAPY FOR THE TREATMENT OF CANCER

The invention relates to an expression system comprising a first and/or a second nucleic acid construct, particularly for use in a combined gene and radiation therapy for the treatment of diseases, especially cancer. The first nucleic acid construct encodes for a target STING, that is responsive to a STING agonist recognizing said target STING but not the human STING and natural variants thereof, wherein said sequence encoding the target STING is operatively linked to elements allowing expression and/or translation of said target STING. The second nucleic acid construct comprise a therapeutic gene sequence which is operatively linked to a STING responsive promoter. Said expression system is administered to a target tissue or organ that received prior low dose radiation and is followed by another round of radiation therapy and/or treatment with a STING agonist.