Nazanin Majd, MD, Ph.D., BS, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuro-Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. In this video, she speaks about Immunotherapy for Neuro-oncology.
Abstract
Immunotherapy is at the forefront of cancer advances and has revolutionized the landscape of treatment for many solid and hematological malignancies. Several factors unique to the central nervous system (CNS), such as limited space for an inflammatory response, difficulties with repeated sampling, corticosteroid use for cerebral edema management, and immunosuppressive mechanisms within the tumor and brain parenchyma, have all posed challenges in the clinical development of intracranial tumor immunotherapy. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of immunotherapy in brain metastases (BMs) from solid malignancies like melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) shows that the CNS is not immune-privileged and can initiate and regulate immune responses that lead to tumor control. However, due to systemic and extensive tumor-mediated immunosuppression peculiar to GBM, intratumoral and intertumoral heterogeneity, and a lack of persistently produced clonal antigens, developing immunotherapeutics for the most aggressive primary brain tumor, glioblastoma (GBM), has proven difficult. We examine recent developments in neuro-oncology immunotherapy, with a focus on BM, GBM, and uncommon CNS malignancies.