Dr. Okada Discusses Immunotherapy Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology

Hideho Okada MD, PhD, professor, Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, discusses the need for a new immunotherapy response assessment in neuro-oncology. Okada presented on this topic at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

As immunotherapy emerges in this field, physicians and researchers have noticed new types of challenges with interpretation of MRI images. After the initiation of therapy, a patient’s tumor will sometimes grow before shrinking. In many cases, Okada says, this leads to a premature termination of treatment.

Immunotherapies sometimes create an inflammatory response in the brain that makes the tumor look larger than it actually is, Okada says. This reinforces the need for new response criteria that are suitable for immunotherapy.

<<<

View more from the 2015 SNO Meeting