Personalized neoantigen vaccines: a glimmer of hope for glioblastoma

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most prevalent primary brain tumor. In spite of the rigorous multimodal treatment involving surgery and radiochemotherapy, GBM has a dismal prognosis and rapid relapsing potential. Hence, search for novel therapeutic agents still continues. Neoantigens are the tumor-specific antigens which arise due to somatic mutations in the tumor genome. In recent years, personalized vaccine approach targeting neoantigens has been explored widely in cancer immunotherapy and several efforts have also been made to revolutionize the immunotherapy of cold tumors such as GBM using neoantigen targeted vaccines.

In this review, we discuss the clinical application of personalized neoantigen targeted vaccine strategy in GBM immunotherapy. While discussing this strategy, we brief about the current challenges faced in GBM treatment by the novel immunotherapeutics.

To date, very few vaccines developed for GBM have reached till phase III clinical development. Early-phase clinical trials of GBM neoantigen vaccines have shown promising clinical outcomes and therefore, its rapid clinical development is warranted. Advent of newer and faster techniques such as next-generation sequencing will drive the faster clinical development of multiplex neoantigen vaccines and hence, increase in the clinical trials is expected.