Pre-surgery immunotherapy may improve treatment for deadly brain cancer
With a five-year survival rate of barely 5%, glioblastoma remains one of the deadliest brain cancers. First-line treatment consists of surgery to remove as much tumor tissue as possible.
Glioblastoma, a highly lethal brain cancer, boasts only a 5% five-year survival rate. Current standard treatment involves surgical removal of as much tumor tissue as possible. Researchers from the University of Geneva and Geneva University Hospitals have found that surgery triggers a repair response in the surrounding tissue, making the residual tumor more resistant to subsequent treatments.
In a groundbreaking study, the team administered CAR-T cells—immune cells engineered to recognize and eliminate tumor cells—before rather than after surgery in mice. This strategy resulted in significantly improved and durable tumor control, as the pre-surgery administration of CAR-T cells neutralized the immune-suppressive macrophages that arise post-operatively.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, have major implications for glioblastoma treatment, suggesting that administering CAR-T cells pre-operatively could be a promising approach to overcome the immune obstacles created by the tumor microenvironment.
Written by urgent.news from Medical Xpress's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
