Modulation of the Tumor Microenvironment for the Treatment of Brain Tumors

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neuro-oncology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 246

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA
Interests: brain tumors; neuro-oncology; neurosurgery; neurotrauma; radiosurgery; immune-oncology; translational research; clinical trials
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Guest Editor
Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20251 Hamburg, Germany
Interests: brain cancer; glioma; neurology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is becoming increasingly evident that modulation of the immune tumor microenvironment (TME) can rewire an immunosuppressive state to an immune-responsive milieu, allowing novel immune therapies to be used to treat primary and secondary brain tumors. An in-depth understanding of the key players surrounding modulation of this immune response could be a game changer in improving the normally dismal outcomes of malignant brain tumors. For this Special Issue of Brain Sciences, we are seeking original articles, clinical trials, and comprehensive reviews exploring novel mechanisms and treatments that rewire the TME of malignant primary and secondary brain tumors, priming the immune system for immunological tumor cell death, and/or leveraging novel combination therapies which lead to increased tumor cell death, decreased tumor burden, and prolonged survival. 

Dr. Lam C. Fred
Dr. Cecile Maire
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • tumor microenvironment
  • immuno-oncology
  • primary brain tumors
  • metastatic brain tumors
  • neuro-oncology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

23 pages, 3980 KB  
Review
Tunable Technologies for the Glioma Tumor Microenvironment: A Comprehensive Review on Bench-to-Bedside Neurosurgical Advances
by Eshita Sharma, Julieta Serobyan, Numa Rajab, Aisha Rizwan Ahmed, Santosh Guru and Michael K. Lim
Brain Sci. 2026, 16(6), 578; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16060578 (registering DOI) - 29 May 2026
Abstract
Gliomas remain among the most treatment-resistant malignancies of the central nervous system. Glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive adult-type diffuse glioma, is associated with persistently poor survival despite maximal safe resection followed by chemoradiation. Gliomas do not grow in isolation. Work over the past [...] Read more.
Gliomas remain among the most treatment-resistant malignancies of the central nervous system. Glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive adult-type diffuse glioma, is associated with persistently poor survival despite maximal safe resection followed by chemoradiation. Gliomas do not grow in isolation. Work over the past twenty years has dismantled the older tumor-centric view of glioma biology, replacing it with a model in which malignant cells operate within a tumor microenvironment (TME) composed of immune, vascular, stromal, and neural elements that together govern disease behavior. What makes the glioma TME so difficult to treat is not just its composition of immune cells, vasculature, stroma, and neurons, but the fact that these elements are arranged unevenly across the tumor. Different regions harbor different cellular mixtures and signaling environments, and, as a result, different vulnerabilities to therapy. Cytoreduction has not lost its importance, far from it. However, the same surgical window now also serves a different purpose; it lets the surgeon see which tissue is biologically dangerous rather than just visually abnormal, locate the true edge of infiltration, and get therapeutics past a blood–brain barrier (BBB) that has historically locked them out of the brain. This review examines two technology domains, including: (1) optical theranostics (5-aminolevulinic acid fluorescence-guided surgery, fluorescein-guided visualization, Raman spectroscopy, and stimulated Raman histology); and (2) blood–brain barrier disrupting technologies. The direction they collectively point toward is a version of glioma surgery that is guided less by anatomy and more by the biology of the tumor itself. Full article
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