Immunobiology and Cytokine Modulation of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Microenvironment: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Utilizing a Scoping Review strategy in the domain of immune biology to identify immune therapeutic targets, knowledge gaps for implementing immune therapeutic strategies for pediatric brain tumors was assessed. The analysis demonstrated limited efforts to date to characterize and understand the immunological aspects of tumor biology with an over-reliance on observations from the adult glioma population. Foundational knowledge regarding the frequency and ubiquity of immune therapeutic targets is an area of unmet need along with the development of immune-competent pediatric tumor models to test therapeutics and especially combinatorial treatment. Opportunities arise in the evolution of pediatric tumor classification from histological to molecular with targeted immune therapeutics.

OV Modulators of the Paediatric Brain TIME: Current Status, Combination Strategies, Limitations and Future Directions

“…Furthermore, monitoring the virally induced immune response through systemic measurement of increases in specific immune cell types does not necessarily reflect the immune status in the TME. Solely quantifying the infiltrating immune cells in the TIME as a marker of effective anti-tumour response is inadequate, due to the diverse pro-tumour and anti-tumour functions of different immune cell populations [109]. As an example, the distribution of virusspecific versus tumour-specific infiltrating T cells is not well characterised, nor investigated during the different stages of treatment in the patients, despite the fact that this ratio could substantially alter the outcome in tumour response [77,109].…”