Immunotherapy for high-grade glioma

4th Quadrennial Meeting of the World Federation of Neuro-Oncology in conjunction with the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology, San Francisco, CA, USA, 21-24 November 2013 Aside from temozolomide, there has been no major breakthrough for decades to improve outcome for high-grade glioma. Bevacizumab failed to show a survival advantage in two large studies - AVaglio and RTOG-0825 - and no other novel chemotherapy agents seem to be appearing on the horizon for this universally fatal disease. Consequently, the neuro-oncology fraternity is turning to immunotherapy. This became apparent in this meeting, considering a number of delegates focused their attention to presentations on immunotherapy. The ReACT study demonstrated the safety and efficacy of the combination of a promising peptide vaccine, rindopepimut, and bevacizumab with longer survival seen in patients with a higher antibody titer. Several presentations reassured that dendritic cell-based immunotherapy is safe and can generate a lasting immune response. Employing gene therapy, increased intratumor 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy concentration can be achieved using TOCA 511, and temozolomide-resistant transgenic lymphocytes could be produced through retroviral coding. Blocking immune checkpoints PDL-01, CTLA-4 and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase through monoclonal antibodies appears promising.