Immunotherapy for Brain Tumors Webinar Available Now

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Michael Lim, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the latest expert to take part in the Foundation’s webinar series. Dr. Lim discussed the mechanisms of “kindling” a systemic immune response and reviewed the state of multimodal immunotherapy for one of the deadliest brain tumors, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

Immunotherapy – particularly the use of checkpoint inhibitors – continues to revolutionize cancer care. However, not all cancers respond to checkpoint inhibitors, and the response rates are only 20 to 30 percent. Dr. Lim explained why various cancers may or may not respond to various types of immunotherapy.

Current approaches have employed the concept of multimodal strategies with immunotherapy. The central concept is to cause focal disruption to “kindle” a systemic immune response. For brain tumors, procedures such as focused ultrasound, stereotactic radiosurgery, neoadjuvant surgery, and laser ablation are being combined with immunotherapy strategies in hopes of generating an antitumor immune response.

Dr. Lim is a Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, Otolaryngology, and Radiation Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program at Johns Hopkins.

Watch the Webinar >