Breaking Immune Isolation in Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma (GBM) represents one of the prototypical immune-cold tumors, characterized by profound immune suppression, T-cell exclusion, low neoantigen burden, and a highly immunosuppressive myeloid-dominant tumor microenvironment (TME). Despite advances in immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), CAR-T cells, and cancer vaccines, clinical benefits remain limited. This review synthesizes emerging evidence on multi-modal strategies aimed at reprogramming the cold TME into an immunologically active state. We highlight innate immune agonists, oncolytic virotherapy, precision nanomedicine, metabolic modulation, and radiotherapy-immune synergies. We further propose an integrated framework combining spatial immunomics, targeted delivery technology, and TME-specific engineering to overcome the therapeutic bottlenecks of GBM.
Authors
- Kihwan Hwang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7211-729X)
- Ji‐Yong Sung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8397-1691)
Institutions
- Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Drug Resistance Updates
- Published
- 2026-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drup.2026.101412
- Primary Topic
- T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00