Immunotherapy Against Gliomas: is the Breakthrough Near?

Immunotherapeutic approaches have been, and continue to be, aggressively investigated in the treatment of infiltrating gliomas. While the results of late-phase clinical studies have been disappointing in this disease space thus far, the success of immunotherapies in other malignancies as well as the incremental gains in our understanding of immune-tumour interactions in gliomas has fuelled a strong continued interest of their evaluation in these tumours. We discuss a range of immunotherapeutic approaches including, but not limited to, vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors, oncolytic viruses, and gene therapies. Potential biomarkers under investigation to help elucidate which patients may respond or not respond to immunotherapeutic regimens are reviewed. Directions for future investigations are also noted.