A Glance at Drug Delivery Systems and Emerging Immunotherapeutic Strategies for the Treatment of Glioblastoma

This chapter gives an overview of current innovative approaches to GBM focusing on the therapeutic benefit of immunotherapeutic agents and drug delivery systems. In particular, we aim to provide a summary of the recent clinical trials using immunomodulator, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), i.e. monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) blocking cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death-1 (PD-1/PD-L1a), vaccination therapy. Although ICIs and vaccines have shown limited efficacy when used as monotherapy, promising results have been reported for their combination with immune adjuvants, such as chemo, radio- and photodynamic therapies, suggesting an emerging strategy for a more successful antitumoral immune response.