Immunotherapy for Malignant Glioma: Current Status and Future Directions

Abstract

Glioma is the most common intracranial primary malignancy, with limited treatment options and a poor overall survival (OS). Immunotherapy has been used successfully in various cancers, leading to the development of similar therapies that activate the patient's immune system to eliminate glioma. In this review, we introduce the diverse immunotherapeutic approaches available for treating glioma, highlighting the successes and challenges resulting from current clinical trials. Additionally, we emphasize the effect of multiple clinical factors on immunotherapy to help optimize individualized treatment regimens. Finally, we also highlight several novel concepts and technologies that could be used to design new and/or improve existing immunotherapies. Such approaches will delineate a new blueprint for glioma treatment.

Keywords: checkpoint Inhibitor; chimeric antigen receptor; glioma; immunotherapy; oncolytic virus; vaccine.