{"entity":{"id":"paper-pembrolizumab-glioblastoma-clin-cancer-res-2025","kind":"paper","name":"Re-Irradiation Plus Pembrolizumab: A Phase II Study for Patients with Recurrent Glioblastoma","aka":[],"tldr":"Phase 2 or 3 results paper on Pembrolizumab in Glioma & glioblastoma, in Clinical Cancer Research (2025), one of the most cited Europe PMC records with Pembrolizumab in its title.","summary":"Purpose: Radiotherapy may enhance antitumor immune responses by several mechanisms, including induction of immunogenic cell death. We performed a phase 2 study of pembrolizumab with re-irradiation in patients with recurrent glioblastoma.\n\nPatients and methods: Sixty patients with recurrent glioblastoma received pembrolizumab with re-irradiation alone (cohort A, bevacizumab-naïve; n = 30) or with bevacizumab continuation (cohort B, n = 30). Dual primary endpoints, including the overall response rate and overall survival (OS) at either 12 (OS-12; cohort A) or 6 months (OS-6; cohort B), were assessed per cohort relative to historic benchmarks. Paired paraffin-embedded formalin-fixed tumor samples were assessed for immunologic biomarkers by IHC using digital quantification and co-detection-by-indexing (CODEX).\n\nResults: Study therapy was well tolerated, with most toxicities being grade ≤3. For cohort B, the primary endpoint of OS-6 was achieved (57%); however, survival was not improved for cohort A patients. The overall response rate was 3.3% and 6.7% for cohorts A and B, respectively. CODEX analysis of paired tumor samples from five patients revealed an increase of activated T cells in the tumor microenvironment after study therapy.\n\nConclusions: Compared with historic controls, re-irradiation plus pembrolizumab seemed to improve survival among bevacizumab-refractory patients but not among bevacizumab-naïve patients. CODEX revealed evidence of intratumoral infiltration of activated immune effector cells. A randomized, properly controlled trial of PD-1 blockade plus re-irradiation is warranted to further evaluate this regimen for bevacizumab-refractory patients, but alternative approaches are needed for bevacizumab-naïve patients.\n\nIndexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 39513953 (DOI 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-24-1629). Its title names Pembrolizumab and its text names Glioma & glioblastoma; PubMed types it as a clinical trial report (Clinical Trial, Phase II). It was matched automatically to the idea \"Neoadjuvant immunotherapy with surgical window for glioblastoma\" and no figure has been checked by an editor.","asOf":"2026-09-22","links":[{"label":"Clin Cancer Res 2025","url":"https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-24-1629"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39513953/"},{"label":"Europe PMC","url":"https://europepmc.org/article/MED/39513953"}],"tags":["europepmc-ingest"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":["clinical-cancer-research"],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"Clinical Cancer Research","year":2025,"doi":"10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-24-1629","pmid":"39513953","authors":"Iwamoto FM, Tanguturi SK, Nayak L, et al.","paperType":"rct","findings":[],"whatItMeans":"One of the most cited trial reports Europe PMC returns for Pembrolizumab in Glioma & glioblastoma, so it is a natural first reading for anyone weighing the idea it is linked from. The record was linked automatically by title and abstract; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.","caveats":["Matched by Pembrolizumab in the title and Glioma & glioblastoma in the title or abstract of the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.","Chosen as a phase 2 or 3 report by the record's publication type or its own wording, not by reading the paper."]},"route":"/key-papers/paper-pembrolizumab-glioblastoma-clin-cancer-res-2025/","neighbours":{"journal":[{"id":"clinical-cancer-research","kind":"journal","name":"Clinical Cancer Research","route":"/journals/clinical-cancer-research/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-neoadjuvant-io-glioblastoma","kind":"idea","name":"Neoadjuvant immunotherapy with surgical window for glioblastoma","route":"/ideas/idea-neoadjuvant-io-glioblastoma/"}]}}