Oncolytic virotherapy represents a promising immunotherapeutic approach for cancer treatment that harnesses engineered or naturally occurring viruses to selectively destroy malignant cells while stimulating anti-tumor immune responses. This comprehensive review, published in October 2026 in Clinical and Experimental Medicine, examines the biological mechanisms underlying oncolytic virus function, including direct tumor cell lysis and immune system activation. The article synthesizes recent clinical advances demonstrating the efficacy of various oncolytic virus platforms in treating diverse cancer types, while addressing key challenges in optimizing viral delivery and overcoming tumor microenvironment barriers. The review discusses emerging strategies to enhance therapeutic potency through viral engineering and combination approaches with conventional therapies. By presenting current evidence and future research directions, this open-access publication provides clinicians and researchers with essential insights into the translational potential of oncolytic virotherapy, positioning it as an increasingly viable treatment modality within the evolving cancer care landscape alongside conventional chemotherapy and immunotherapy options.

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Glioblastoma multiforme remains one of oncology's most challenging malignancies, with median overall survival stubbornly hovering around fifteen months despite aggressive surgical resection, radiotherapy, and temozolomide chemotherapy. A comprehensive research perspective published in Oncoscience in September 2026 by Mamunur Rahman of East West University examines the evolving investigational landscape and concludes that the glioblastoma pipeline is undergoing fundamental transformation characterized by mechanistic breadth and biological sophistication. The article organizes emerging therapies into four mechanism-based domains: molecular-targeted therapies, immunotherapies and vaccines, oncolytic viruses and gene therapies, and agents targeting tumor metabolism and microenvironment. Critically, the field is shifting away from treating glioblastoma as a uniform disease toward biomarker-guided approaches that match treatments to individual tumor profiles. Patient selection increasingly relies on biomarkers including MGMT promoter methylation, IDH mutation status, EGFR amplification, and BRAF V600E alterations—defining biologically distinct patient groups. This stratification strategy mirrors successful paradigms established in lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma, offering renewed hope for improving outcomes in this historically refractory disease.

A phase III clinical trial published in JAMA Oncology in November 2022 demonstrated that DCVax-L, a dendritic-cell vaccine loaded with tumor lysate from patients' own glioblastoma tissue, significantly improved survival when added to standard treatment for this aggressive brain cancer. The study enrolled 232 newly diagnosed and 64 recurrent glioblastoma patients across four countries between 2007 and 2015, administering intradermal injections of 2.5 million dendritic cells on a schedule spanning from initial treatment through month 30, combined with conventional therapies including temozolomide, lomustine, or bevacizumab. Dendritic cells function as "professor cells" that educate the immune system by presenting tumor antigens to B and T lymphocytes, bridging innate and adaptive immunity. Survival outcomes were compared against external controls from 16 randomized trials involving over 2,000 patients. The treatment proved clinically and statistically superior to standard care alone in both newly diagnosed and recurrent cases, with manageable safety profiles—only five serious adverse events were potentially vaccine-related, including three cerebral edema cases and one infection. Notably, no autoimmune reactions or cytokine storms occurred. These findings support exploring dendritic-cell immunotherapy approaches earlier in glioblastoma treatment protocols.

Oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) represents a promising immunotherapy approach that kills cancer cells and triggers immunogenic cell death to activate anti-tumor immune responses. However, its effectiveness is limited in immunosuppressive "cold" solid tumors where the tumor microenvironment restricts viral infiltration and immune activation. This review examines how bacteriophages—safe, genetically manipulable bacterial viruses—can enhance OVT by leveraging their unique characteristics including repetitive peptide presentation, biological barrier degradation, and superior payload delivery capabilities. Two complementary approaches are proposed: the established synergistic method utilizing chimeric vectors like AAVP that combine phage safety and precision with oncolytic virus capabilities, and a modular approach transferring specific bacteriophage traits to replication-competent oncolytic viruses. Notably, researchers have used artificial intelligence and genetic engineering to create the first mammalian-encoded hyaluronate lyase, a synthetically produced variant that avoids tumor-promoting effects of existing mammalian extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes. This innovation is timely given cancer's devastating global impact, with WHO reporting 10 million deaths in 2022 and projections reaching 18.5 million deaths by 2050, underscoring urgent demand for effective immunotherapeutic strategies.

Vacunas is the official journal of the Asociación Española de Vacunología, dedicated to publishing research on vaccine-preventable diseases in humans and animals with zoonotic potential. The journal emphasizes planning and evaluation aspects, including epidemiology of immunopreventable diseases, vaccination program development, and assessment of vaccination efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency. Accepting submissions in both Spanish and English, Vacunas covers diverse areas including vaccine development and evaluation, regulatory affairs, vaccine technology encompassing vectors and adjuvants, public health policies, vaccine immunology and mechanisms of action, safety and effectiveness assessment, and vaccine acceptance. Notably, the journal extends its scope to vaccines for chronic conditions, autoimmune diseases, allergies, and non-communicable diseases, reflecting contemporary medical challenges. Additionally, it addresses veterinary vaccines for animal health through a One Health perspective, recognizing the interconnection between human and animal health systems. This comprehensive editorial focus positions Vacunas as a significant platform for advancing vaccine science and public health knowledge across multiple disciplines and disease categories.

A comprehensive research perspective published in Oncoscience examines the evolving glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) treatment landscape for 2025–2026, highlighting unprecedented mechanistic diversity in the investigational pipeline. Led by Mamunur Rahman from East West University in Bangladesh, the review organizes emerging therapies into four major categories: molecular-targeted therapies, immunotherapies and vaccines, oncolytic viruses and gene therapies, and agents targeting tumor metabolism and microenvironment. GBM remains lethal despite standard treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and temozolomide, with median overall survival around 15 months. The article addresses formidable biological barriers including genetic tumor heterogeneity, immunosuppressive microenvironments, blood-brain barrier penetration challenges, and hypoxia-driven resistance. Key molecularly targeted approaches discussed include CDK4/6 inhibitors like abemaciclib combined with ERK inhibitor LY3214996, and regorafenib, which demonstrated improved survival versus lomustine in the Phase 2 REGOMA trial for recurrent GBM. The review emphasizes biomarker-guided patient selection, leveraging MGMT promoter methylation, IDH mutations, EGFR amplification and BRAF V600E status to identify biologically distinct patient subgroups for optimized treatment strategies.

Glioblastoma remains a highly aggressive and treatment-resistant primary brain malignancy with limited long-term survival improvements despite multimodal therapeutic advances. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) drive tumor initiation, recurrence, and therapeutic resistance through complex interactions with the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). This comprehensive review examines the molecular and cellular mechanisms of GSC-TIME crosstalk, focusing on key immune populations including tumor-associated macrophages, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, T cells, regulatory T cells, natural killer cells, and neutrophils. Critical signaling pathways are identified, including B2M/TGF-β1, IL8/CXCR2, IFI35/NF-κB, lactate/lactylation, and m6A/LOXL2, alongside extracellular vesicle-mediated communication. These interactions sustain GSC stemness, enable metabolic adaptation, facilitate immune escape, and confer resistance to radiotherapy, temozolomide, and targeted therapies. The review evaluates emerging therapeutic strategies including TAM/MDSC reprogramming, metabolic and epigenetic interventions, immune checkpoint blockade, bispecific antibodies, CAR-T/NK cell therapy, and extracellular vesicle-based delivery. Understanding GSC-TIME crosstalk is essential for developing precision therapies that address the spatial heterogeneity and blood-brain barrier challenges inherent to glioblastoma treatment.

T-cell immunotherapies have revolutionized treatment for blood cancers but show limited effectiveness against solid tumors, primarily due to restrictive tumor microenvironments that impede immune-cell trafficking and function. Researchers employed advanced techniques including dynamic imaging of human tumor tissue, multiparametric cytometry, single-cell transcriptomics, and spatial analysis to identify specific barriers to T-cell infiltration. Their findings reveal that extracellular-matrix architecture physically constrains T-cell movement, tumor-associated macrophages create additional blockades to T-cell entry, and mitochondrial metabolism is critical for CD8 T-cell motility and infiltration efficiency. This work now extends to CAR-T cell development for adult and pediatric solid tumors through the Cancer Grand Challenges NexTGen program. By correlating CAR-T-cell behavior and activation with tumor microenvironment composition, researchers aim to discover predictive biomarkers for treatment response and develop rational combination strategies that enhance infiltration and anti-tumor effectiveness. These human ex vivo models bridge mechanistic immunology with clinical application, potentially accelerating development of improved cellular therapies for solid cancers.

This research topic examines how immunosuppression in solid tumors emerges from complex interactions between tumor cells, immune cells, and stromal cells within distinct microenvironmental contexts. Rather than being driven by single mechanisms, immunosuppression is shaped by both spatial organization and metabolic conditions affecting populations such as regulatory T cells, tumor-associated macrophages, and cancer-associated fibroblasts. The collection comprises nine original research articles and four reviews analyzing immunosuppression across multiple biological scales. Key findings reveal that COL11A1-positive cancer-associated fibroblasts accumulate at tumor boundaries, correlating with reduced cytotoxic T cell and B cell activation. Multiplex immunofluorescence studies in non-small cell lung cancer identified BAG3-positive fibroblasts spatially associated with CD8 T cells as markers of neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy resistance. Research also demonstrates that molecules like MUC16 inhibit natural killer cell immune synapse formation with cancer cells. Understanding these spatial and metabolic dimensions is critical for developing more effective immunotherapy strategies targeting the tumor microenvironment's multiscale architecture.

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and ShanghaiTech University have developed an innovative method for growing brain tumors of individual patients in the laboratory that mimic the original structure and the molecular property of the parental tumor as closely as possible. Drug tests in this model were found to correlate very well with actual patient responses, making it a valuable method for investigating therapies.

A personalized vaccine to treat glioblastoma, a fast-growing and incurable brain cancer that affects four in 100,000 people in the U.S., is safe and elicits robust and broad immune responses that appears to increase recurrence-free survival in a subset of patients after surgery, according to an early-stage clinical trial co-led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

UC San Diego is conducting multiple clinical trials in 2026 targeting glioblastoma and related brain cancers, enrolling eligible patients aged 18 and older. The first phase I/II trial investigates selinexor, a selective inhibitor of nuclear export (SINE) that blocks the CRM1 protein to impede cancer cell growth, administered alongside standard temozolomide chemotherapy in recurrent glioblastoma patients. A second phase I trial tests triapine, which inhibits enzymes necessary for tumor cell growth, combined with radiation therapy for recurrent glioblastoma and astrocytoma. The third multicenter study evaluates DB107-RRV and DB107-FC (formerly Toca 511 and Toca FC) following surgical resection in newly diagnosed high-grade glioma patients, comparing outcomes to historical control data when added to standard care including radiation and temozolomide using the Stupp Protocol. These trials matter because glioblastoma remains a devastating diagnosis with limited treatment options; combination approaches targeting different molecular pathways may improve survival and progression-free survival rates for both newly diagnosed and recurrent cases.

# Professional Summary Researchers at Tufts Medicine have developed a personalized therapeutic approach for treating a deadly form of brain cancer that demonstrates remarkable efficacy. The novel treatment strategy has been shown to increase median life expectancy by 40 percent compared to standard care protocols. This breakthrough represents a significant advancement in oncology, particularly for patients with limited treatment options facing aggressive brain tumors. The personalized therapy approach tailors treatment based on individual patient characteristics and tumor profiles, allowing for more targeted and effective intervention. This development underscores the growing importance of precision medicine in cancer care, where customized treatment plans based on specific molecular and genetic markers yield superior outcomes. The findings from Tufts Medicine suggest that personalized therapeutic strategies may substantially improve survival rates and quality of life for brain cancer patients. This advancement offers hope to patients diagnosed with this previously intractable malignancy and may influence future treatment protocols across oncology centers.

UCSF is conducting multiple clinical trials for glioblastoma, a aggressive brain cancer, offering patients novel immunotherapy approaches. The first trial evaluates E-SYNC CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically modifies a patient's immune cells to target EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma tumors. Patients receive lymphodepleting chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide and fludarabine before CAR T infusion to enhance treatment efficacy. A second multicenter study investigates DB107-RRV and DB107-FC (formerly Toca 511 and Toca FC), oncolytic viral therapies combined with standard care including surgical resection, radiation, and temozolomide in newly diagnosed high-grade glioma patients. The third trial examines DOC1021 dendritic cell immunotherapy combined with pIFN alongside standard treatment to improve survival in newly diagnosed IDH-wildtype glioblastoma patients. These trials represent significant advancement in immunotherapy approaches for treating otherwise difficult-to-manage brain cancers, offering eligible adults aged 18 and above access to cutting-edge therapeutic options that may substantially improve outcomes beyond conventional treatments.

Researchers at MIT's Media Lab have developed injectable nanoantennas called HITMAN (highly localized electric-field-induced tumor therapy using magnetically actuated nanoantennas) to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer with median survival of 12–15 months. These nanodevices, each about one-hundredth the width of a human hair, are magnetically activated to generate localized therapeutic electric fields that selectively target and kill cancer cells while preserving healthy brain tissue. In laboratory studies using tumor cells from chemotherapy-resistant glioblastoma patients at Mayo Clinic, HITMAN eliminated 52.2 percent of drug-resistant cancer cells—more than five times the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy drug temozolomide. When tested in orthotopic mouse models, the technology substantially inhibited tumor growth and extended median survival by over 50 percent without detectable organ toxicity or damage to healthy tissue. The nanoantennas can be wirelessly activated from outside the body using low-frequency magnetic fields. Published in Science Advances, these findings suggest HITMAN could offer a precise, safe alternative to conventional brain cancer treatments.

CAR-T cell therapy has transformed the treatment of several haematological malignancies, but its impact in solid tumours has remained frustratingly limited. Now, a new generation of in vivo CAR-T cell technologies promises to remove some of the biggest practical barriers associated with conventional cell therapy.

The tumor mechanical microenvironment (TMME) significantly influences cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, and treatment response through physical cues including matrix stiffness, solid stress, interstitial fluid flow, and extracellular matrix architecture. Traditional in vitro and in vivo models inadequately capture the dynamic, heterogeneous mechanical characteristics of native tumors. This comprehensive review examines advances in modeling the TMME using tumor organoids, particularly patient-derived tumor organoids (PDOs), which maintain tumor architecture, cellular heterogeneity, and genetic background while enabling precise experimental control and high-throughput analysis. The authors discuss major mechanical features of the tumor microenvironment and strategies for recreating these features in organoid models, including stiffness-defined matrices, engineered extracellular matrices, microfluidic platforms, mechanical actuation systems, multicellular co-culture approaches, and three-dimensional bioprinting techniques. The review emphasizes applications in mechanistic studies, disease modeling, and drug testing, highlighting how organoid-based platforms represent physiologically relevant alternatives for understanding tumor mechanics and improving therapeutic strategies.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), representing 15-20% of breast cancer cases, lacks expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), rendering conventional targeted therapies ineffective and resulting in poorer clinical outcomes. A critical challenge in TNBC treatment is chemoresistance development through mechanisms including drug efflux transporter upregulation, altered apoptotic pathways, enhanced DNA repair, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition, compounded by tumor microenvironment factors such as hypoxia and acidic pH. Conventional chemotherapy's non-specific drug distribution causes systemic toxicity while failing to accumulate in chemoresistant tumor niches. To overcome these limitations, researchers are advancing stimuli-responsive nanocarriers that enable selective, controlled drug delivery triggered by tumor-specific stimuli including pH, enzymes, temperature, and redox conditions. These nanofabricated carriers enhance drug bioavailability, facilitate intracellular delivery, overcome efflux mechanisms, and modulate the tumor microenvironment. Nanofabrication techniques enable precise control over nanocarrier size, shape, surface characteristics, and drug release profiles, optimizing therapeutic outcomes and addressing key mechanisms underlying TNBC chemoresistance.

Recent research demonstrates significant advancement in natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapies across multiple cancer types. A phase II trial combined sequential hypofractionated radiotherapy with atezolizumab for relapsed small cell lung cancer, using objective response rate as the primary measure. NK cell therapies have shown particular promise in hepatocellular carcinoma, where radiation-induced tumor-cell phenotypic changes were evaluated to support primary NK cell therapy combined with atezolizumab. Innovative approaches include engineering NK cells with multivalent galectin-3 binding polymers to mechanically reinforce immunological synapses with target tumor cells, enhancing their cytotoxic capacity. Research has identified compounds that modulate NK cell activity for pancreatic cancer treatment, addressing this highly aggressive malignancy's limited therapeutic options. Additional studies characterize NK cell dysfunction in aging, revealing declining per-cell cytotoxicity with age. Genetic factors including killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors and HLA class I molecules regulate antiviral and antitumor responses, particularly relevant in Epstein-Barr virus-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma. These developments address critical gaps in cancer immunotherapy by leveraging NK cells' natural cytotoxic capabilities to overcome immune evasion and metastatic disease progression.