Immunity, Genomics and Neurosurgery at the Intersection of Brain Cancer Therapeutics

Nduka Amankulor, MD

Division Head, Neurosurgical Oncology

Presidential Associate Professor

Dept of Neurosurgery

Director, Brain Tumor Center

Penn Brain Tumor Center

Abramson Cancer Center

The University of Pennsylvania

Immunity, Genomics and Nerurosurgery at the Intersection of Brain Cancer Therapeutics

Malignant gliomas are universally fatal, and survival outcomes have remained stagnant for the last 3 decades. However, glimmers of hope have been encountered by applying highly personalized immunogenomic models towards the discovery of new brain cancer therapeutics. By evaluating distinct genomic subclasses of glioma and their underlying pathogenic mechanisms, we have discovered causal relationships between glioma genomic alterations and unique genotype-restricted mechanisms of immune suppression in glioma. This talk describes my personal overview of our path to discovery, the pitfalls experienced, and successes encountered using multimodal real-world immunogenomic variables to drive hypotheses and build new brain tumor immunotherapy.