Immunotherapy Options for Primary Central Nervous System Tumors

Serhat SEKMEKa , Didem ŞENER DEDEb
aAnkara Bilkent City Hospital, Clinic of Medical Oncology, Ankara, Türkiye
bAnkara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Department of Medical Oncology, Ankara, Türkiye

Sekmek S, Şener Dede D. Immunotherapy options for primary central nervous system tumors. In: Şendur MAN, ed. Current Immunotherapy Landscape for Solid Tumors. 1st ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2024. p.18-23.

ABSTRACT
Primary brain tumors (PBTs) occur at a frequency of 2% among all cancers. The most common and most lethal primary brain tumor in adulthood is glioblastoma (GB). In the treatment of PBTs and especially GB, surgery following concomitant radiotherapy given together with temozolomide (TMZ) and maintenance TMZ is still the gold standard. Immunotherapy options such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, oncolytic viruses, vaccines, and CAR-T cell therapies have been tried in this field, and despite partial positive results, they have not yet reached the level that changes clinical practice. However, many ongoing studies will show the place of immunotherapies in the treatment of primary brain tumors.

Keywords: Central nervous system tumor; immunotherapy

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