Checkpoint Blockade Immunotherapy for Glioblastoma: Progress and Challenges
Conventional therapy for glioblastoma (GBM) fails to specifically target and eliminate tumor cells, resulting in nonspecific toxicity that limits therapeutic efficacy. In contrast, immunotherapy utilizes the immune system to eradicate tumor cells with exquisite specificity. Specifically, checkpoint blockade therapy has emerged as a promising strategy for reducing tumor-mediated immunosuppression and promoting endogenous antitumor T cell responses. Recent approvals by the Food and Drug and Administration for the novel immune therapeutics ipilimumab and nivolumab have served to validate this overall treatment modality. In this chapter, we summarize the clinical progress of antibody-based checkpoint blockade and its relevance to GBM immunotherapy. We provide an overview of immune checkpoint biology in cancer, the feasibility of antibody-based immunomodulation as a therapeutic strategy for central nervous system malignancies, preclinical and clinical experiences with checkpoint therapy, and the ongoing progress of checkpoint blockade for GBM treatment.
