Tackling the tumour microenvironment to unlock immunotherapy for brain cancer

Joan Seoane

iInstitut Investigació Oncologica Vall Hebron (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain cancer, with a life expectancy of 14 months. Current treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy have not significantly improved survival rates in the past 15 years, however it does not respond to immunotherapy, meaning that we are in an urgent need of effective therapies for this cancer.

This project aims to understand why GBM does not respond to immunotherapy, which has been effective in other cancers, and pretends to use this knowledge to improve the therapy against this malignancy. The focus will be on the tumour microenvironment, particularly on a specific subset of cells, the tumour-associated macrophages, aiming to understand the role they play in preventing the effectiveness of immunotherapy.

By using innovative patient-derived models to study the impact of this cells on immunotherapy treatments, the scientists can mimic the complexity of human GBM. Researchers will also analyse cerebrospinal fluid to evaluate the presence of specific mutations and this cells in a non-invasive manner. The goal is to identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers that can predict the response to immunotherapy and improve treatment outcomes for GBM patients, translating scientific findings into practical applications that can benefit patients directly, potentially leading to new therapies and improved survival rates.

Study of the Impact of the Tumor Microenvironment on Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma

€497.992,96