Tracing the Evolution of Immunotherapies in Neuro-Oncology

In a conversation with CancerNetwork®, Sylvia Kurz, MD, PhD, spoke about the evolution of immunotherapy modalities for patients with intracranial tumors, particularly among those with high-grade gliomas.

According to Kurz, an associate professor of neurology (neuro-oncology) who is part of the Chênevert Family Brain Tumor Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center, immune checkpoint inhibitors alone have not demonstrated efficacy in intracranial tumors. Instead, investigators are emphasizing the development of combinatorial strategies that encompass the use of cancer vaccines. She described how various vaccines are currently under assessment as part of clinical trials for patients with high-grade gliomas.

Additionally, Kurz spoke about the advancement of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in the field, especially for patients with gliomas and glioblastomas. She stated that prior reports have demonstrated promise with the use of CAR T-cell therapy for specific subsets of disease. However, she noted that immunotherapies have not shown as much utility for those with meningiomas.

Transcript:

The field [surrounding] immunotherapies for intracranial tumors has been evolving over the past decade or so. We’ve initially trialed checkpoint inhibitors, which, at this point, have largely not been effective for these tumors. The field is evolving into combinatorial strategies. [For example], combining checkpoint inhibitors with vaccine strategies. There are various types of vaccines available now, and this is what we currently evaluate in the form of clinical trials for high-grade gliomas. Another evolving field is the field of CAR T cells for gliomas and glioblastomas. That, 10 years ago or so, was still very difficult to accomplish, but for the past couple of years, we’ve seen reports where [CAR T-cell therapies are] going to look more and more promising, not for gliomas in general but for subsets of gliomas.

For meningiomas, the immunotherapies haven’t shown as much promise as they did for high-grade gliomas.