Malignant primary brain tumors are a leading cause of cancer mortality with few therapeutic options at recurrence.
Seminal discoveries in the past decade have clarified the anatomy, genetics, epigenetics and function of the immune system within the central nervous system (CNS). This new knowledge has implications for a broad range of tumors that develop within the CNS. At the Duke Brain Tumor Center we have leveraged these discoveries translationally and in early phase clinical trials of human immunotherapy.
The minimal requirements for successful immune therapy are the reversal of a suppressive innate immune environment, effective drug delivery and target specificity. The dramatic heterogeneity and plasticity of CNS tumors at the genetic, epigenetic and transcriptional level remains a profound challenge to successful brain tumor immunotherapy.
This presentation will examine new knowledge of CNS immunology and adaptive and innate immune responses to CNS tumors. It will focus on recent translational discoveries we have made at the brain tumor center at Duke and current therapeutic innovations and opportunities for therapies that target specific vulnerabilities in CNS tumors.