Fig. 2.

Immunotherapeutic strategies to target brain cancer. Several immunotherapeutic strategies have been developed over the past decades, aiming to generate an anti-tumour response from the immune system. Both oncolytic virus therapy and dendritic cell vaccine activate the adaptive part of the immune system via dendritic cells. Oncolytic virus therapy relies on in vivo activation of dendritic cells, whereas dendritic cell vaccine therapy involves training dendritic cells ex vivo from monocytes. In contrast, CAR T/NK cell therapy uses engineered receptors that enable these cells to precisely target and attack the tumour. Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy does not focus on training the immune system but instead removes immunosuppression in the TME by blocking one or more inhibitory checkpoints. Made with BioRender. CAR: chimeric antigen receptor; TME, tumour microenvironment.