Modern advances in
cancer immunotherapy have led to the development of active immunotherapy that utilizes
tumor-associated
antigens to induce a specific immune response against the
tumor. Current methods of
immunotherapy implementation are based on the principle that
tumor-associated
antigens are capable of being processed by antigen-presenting cells and inducing an activated cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-specific immune response that targets the
tumor cells.
Antigen internalization and processing by antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, or macrophages results in their surface association with
MHC class I molecules, which can be recognized by an
antigen-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte adaptive immune response. With the aim of augmenting current immunotherapeutic modalities, much effort has been directed towards enhancing antigen-presenting cell activation and optimizing the processing of
tumor-associated
antigens and major histocompatibility molecules. The goal of these
immunotherapy modifications is to ultimately improve the adaptive specific immune response in killing of
tumor cells while sparing normal tissues.
Immunotherapy has been actively studied and applied in
glioblastomas. Preclinical animal models have shown the feasibility of an active immunotherapy approach through the utilization of
tumor vaccines, and recently several clinical studies have also been initiated. Recently, endogenous
heat-shock proteins have been implicated in the mediation of both the adaptive and innate immune responses. They are now being investigated as a potential modality and adjuvant to
immunotherapy, and they represent a promising novel treatment for human
glioblastomas.