CAR T-cell therapy for gliomas

Abstract

Purpose of review: To review the landscape of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy for gliomas as seen in recently published trials and discuss on-going challenges with new cancer immunotherapy treatments.

Recent findings: Given how CAR T therapy has revolutionized the treatment of several hematologic malignancies, there has been increasing interest in using immunotherapy, and particularly CAR T therapy for gliomas. Within the past decade, several first in human trials have published early patient experiences showing treatment is generally well tolerated but with limited efficacy, which may be improving with newer evolutions in CAR T design to overcome known resistance mechanisms in glioma treatment.

Summary: CAR T therapy is a promising avenue of treatment for high-grade gliomas, which have a universally poor prognosis as well as limited therapeutics. There are a growing number of CAR T clinical trials for CNS tumors and thus, an understanding of their treatment strategies, toxicity management, and overcoming resistance mechanisms will be important for both clinical practice and to identify areas for future research.