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Published in: Current Treatment Options in Neurology 5/2018

01-05-2018 | Neuro-oncology (R Soffietti, Section Editor)

Quo Vadis—Do Immunotherapies Have a Role in Glioblastoma?

Authors: Sylvia C. Kurz, MD, PhD, Patrick Y. Wen, MD

Published in: Current Treatment Options in Neurology | Issue 5/2018

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Abstract

Purpose of review

More effective therapies for glioblastoma are urgently needed. Immunotherapeutic strategies appear particularly promising and are therefore intensively studied. This article reviews the current understanding of the immunosuppressive glioblastoma microenvironment, discusses the rationale behind various immunotherapies, and outlines the findings of several recently published clinical studies.

Recent findings

The results of CheckMate-143 indicated that nivolumab is not superior to bevacizumab in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. A first-in man exploratory study evaluating EGFRvIII-specific CAR T cells for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma demonstrated overall safety of CAR T cell therapy and effective target recognition. A pilot study evaluating treatment with adoptively transferred CMV-specific T cells combined with a CMV-specific DC vaccine was found to be safe and resulted in increased polyclonality of CMV-specific T cells in vivo.

Summary

Despite the success of immunotherapies in many cancers, clinical evidence supporting their efficacy for patients with glioblastoma is still lacking. Nevertheless, the recently published studies provide important proof-of-concept in several areas of immunotherapy research. The careful and critical interpretation of these results will enhance our understanding of the opportunities and challenges of immunotherapies for high-grade gliomas and improve the immunotherapeutic strategies investigated in future clinical trials.
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Metadata
Title
Quo Vadis—Do Immunotherapies Have a Role in Glioblastoma?
Authors
Sylvia C. Kurz, MD, PhD
Patrick Y. Wen, MD
Publication date
01-05-2018
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Treatment Options in Neurology / Issue 5/2018
Print ISSN: 1092-8480
Electronic ISSN: 1534-3138
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-018-0499-0

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