Immunotherapy for Brain Tumor
In recent years, more and more types of immunotherapy have been developed for cancer treatment, such as monoclonal antibodies, cytokines, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs), cancer vaccines, dendritic cells, CAR T-cells, and so on. Some of them are being studied for the treatment of glioblastoma and other malignant neoplasms of the central nervous system. Let's take a look at the progress of immunotherapy for brain tumors.
Immunotherapy in Standard Treatment Regimens
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and one of the most common brain tumors. No immunotherapeutic agent has been approved for its treatment yet. It is a tumor with low immunogenicity that is also protected from the general bloodstream by the blood-brain barrier. On the one hand, this barrier does not allow cancer cells to reach other parts of the body, so brain cancer usually does not spread metastases outside the central nervous system. On the other hand, systemic treatment options are limited because not all drugs administered intravenously reach the tumor cells.
Targeted therapy can also be used for malignant brain tumors. This treatment option involves the use of monoclonal antibodies, but this therapeutic approach is not considered immunotherapy.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs) are the most widely used immunotherapeutic agents in oncology. These drugs "turn off" certain limitations of the immune system, thereby preventing tumors from evading immune cell attacks. Although immune checkpoint inhibitors have made a breakthrough in oncology and are now used for most oncologic diseases, they have unfortunately proven ineffective for brain tumors.
Experimental Immunotherapy Methods for Brain Tumors
Because there are no approved immunotherapy methods for the treatment of malignant brain tumors, they are considered experimental. Patients who are willing to undergo this treatment can enroll in clinical trials.
Dozens of immunotherapy drugs are in early phase clinical trials. We do not yet know how well they work. Immunotherapy drugs include oncolytic viruses, cancer vaccines, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs), peptide vaccines, and neoantigen vaccines. Healthcare professionals are also trying to use adoptive cell technologies, most notably CAR T-cell therapy. It has demonstrated outstanding success in the treatment of several types of oncologic diseases, but the method is still limited for brain tumors.
Only a small number of experimental approaches reach the final phases of clinical trials. These are mainly vaccines and oncolytic viruses. Among these, dendritic cell-based vaccines have shown the best results. These are immune cells that perform the function of antigen presentation. They capture the antigen, divide it into fragments, display them on their surface, and present them to T cells, which then, having received information about the antigen, attack the tumor cells containing it. Thus, a dendritic cell vaccine trains the patient's immune system to recognize targets for attack, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the antitumor immune response. Dendritic cell-based vaccines have demonstrated good results in late phase clinical trials, resulting in improved patient survival rates.
Where Can Patients Have Immunotherapy Treatment?
Most immunotherapy methods are experimental. These are innovative treatments that are only available at the best cancer centers in developed countries.
Going to Germany for immunotherapy will be the best choice because this country has some clinics that use dendritic cells for the treatment of glioblastoma. This addition to standard therapy increases the life expectancy of patients, as evidenced by the results of recently published studies.
You are welcome to use the Booking Health service to select the most suitable clinic in Germany, see prices, and make an appointment for your immunotherapy treatment on your preferred dates. Please leave your request on the website to receive a consultation from medical tourism specialists. They will help you choose a clinic that offers immunotherapy for brain tumors and organize your trip abroad.
