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Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy (sometimes called immuno-oncology) is an emerging type of cancer treatment strategy that aims to harness the body’s own immune system to detect and destroy tumor cells – just as it would a virus. However, to date, immunotherapies have yet to prove they have the same effectiveness for patients with malignant brain tumors as they have in an increasing number of cancers outside the brain. The promise and unfulfilled potential of immunotherapy as an effective strategy for treating brain tumors is what makes this approach one of the key areas of NBTS research funding.


Current Funded Research

Personalized Vaccine Therapy for Glioblastoma

Lead Investigators: Adilia Hormigo, MD, PhD, Leader of Neuro-Oncology Program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Project Description: Dr. Hormigo and her team’s goal is to develop a reproducible method to cultivate a patient’s own dendritic cells (a type of immune cell) from blood draws and begin training these cells to recognize and fight glioblastoma tumors.


Past Funded Research Highlights

  • NBTS-funded research led to the development of Lerapolturev (formerly PVSRIPO), which is a type of immunotherapy known as an oncolytic virus, that uses re-engineered (non-infectious) form of the poliovirus to elicit an immune response against glioblastoma tumors. This treatment is now being evaluated in a phase II clinical trial
  • NBTS-funded research led to the development of Tasadenoturev (formerly DNX-2401), which is a type of immunotherapy known as an oncolytic virus, that uses re-engineered (non-infectious) form of the common cold (adenovirus) to elicit an immune response against tumors. This treatment is now being evaluated in multiple clinical trials for adult and pediatric gliomas
  • NBTS-funded research led to the development of SurVaxM, which is an immunotherapeutic vaccine that seeks to train the immune system to identify glioblastoma as an invader and target the cancerous cells for destruction. This treatment is now being evaluated in clinical trials for newly-diagnosed and recurrent GBM patients
  • NBTS-funded research helped point to a potential new way to effectively use immunotherapies in patients with glioblastoma, by changing the timing of when the treatment is given from post-surgery to pre-surgery.

National Brain Tumor Society-Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Workshop:
The Future of Cancer Immunotherapy for Brain Tumors

 National Brain Tumor Society teamed up with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) to host a collaborative workshop on the future of immuno-oncology for brain tumors. The workshop’s goal was to explore the state of the field, share recent data and ideas, and ultimately identify challenges and opportunities to make immunotherapy a reality for pediatric and adult patients with a brain tumor.

A report from that meeting – authored by NBTS’s Chief Scientific Officer, Kirk Tanner, Director of Research, Olga Futer, and leaders from PICI, as well as expert researchers – was published as a white paper in the Journal of Translational Medicine. The white paper offers key takeaways from the meeting and identifies promising new technologies and several proposed areas of focus and emphasis to improve the impact of immunotherapy in brain tumors.

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