The applications, limitations, and future consideration of immune checkpoint inhibitors in glioblastoma

Abstract

Glioblastoma multiforme is a grade IV malignant tumor found in the brain, formed by mutated astrocytes. Patients with glioblastoma may experience headaches and nausea, and several different symptoms depending on where the tumor is located. Surgery is the primary treatment used for glioblastoma to remove the tumor, but the diffusive nature of this tumor makes it hard to completely remove. The survival years after treatments had not shown improvement with surgeries along with chemo and radiotherapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy, were seen to provide a foreground to the development of an effective treatment. Immune checkpoint inhibitors block pathways that create suppression of T cells to restore their function and allow them to attack cancerous cells again, stimulating an immune response. Even though immune checkpoint inhibitors had shown effectiveness and success in preclinical trials and in treating other cancers, clinical trials using these drugs failed to show improved effectiveness and prognosis of patients with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Some patients didn’t generate a response to the checkpoint inhibitors, while for others the effect of checkpoint inhibitors lasted relatively shortly. Though, several proposals for solutions to the limitations of checkpoint inhibitors were raised by scientists. Immune checkpoint inhibitor shows the potential of being a hope to enhance survival years and prognosis of this currently uncurable disease. The research targets at discussing the mechanisms of ipilimumab, nivolumab, and bevacizumab (types of immune checkpoint inhibitors) and their limitations to provide suggestions of different methods that could be applied to potentially solve the problem and enhance their effectiveness.