ArticleJournal of neuro-oncology2016
Pembrolizumab: first experience with recurrent primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors.
Article in Journal of neuro-oncology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Outcomes of immunotherapy in medulloblastoma: a systematic review.The oncologist · 2026Pooled it
- The current status of immune checkpoint inhibitors in pediatric CNS tumors: a systematic review with a representative case of CMMRD-associated glioma.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2025Pooled it
- The efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in treatment of glioma: a single-arm meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Tumor-Infiltrating CD8Frontiers in immunology · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review on PD-1 Blockade and PD-1 Gene-Editing of CAR-T Cells for Glioma Therapy: From Deciphering to Personalized Medicine.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Pooled it
- Adverse Events of Concurrent Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Antiangiogenic Agents: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2019Pooled it
- Neoadjuvant PD1 plus CTLA-4 immune checkpoint blockade in surgically resectable recurrent glioblastoma: a randomized surgical window-of-opportunity trial.Nature communications · 2026Trial
- Improved overall survival in an anti-PD-L1 treated cohort of newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients is associated with distinct immune, mutation, and gut microbiome features: a single arm prospective phase I/II trial.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Immune checkpoint inhibition for pediatric patients with recurrent/refractory CNS tumors: a single institution experience.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2020Trial
- Neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 immunotherapy promotes a survival benefit with intratumoral and systemic immune responses in recurrent glioblastoma.Nature medicine · 2019Trial
- Nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in patients with recurrent glioblastoma: results from exploratory phase I cohorts of CheckMate 143.Neuro-oncology · 2018Trial
- Predictors of Response to Autologous Dendritic Cell Therapy in Glioblastoma Multiforme.Frontiers in immunology · 2018Trial
- Cellular and Immunotherapy for Pediatric Brain Tumors: A Primer.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- The Application of PD-1 Inhibitors in Immunotherapy for Glioblastoma.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2026Review
- Therapeutic approaches for targeting the pediatric brain tumor microenvironment.Drug delivery and translational research · 2025Review
- Article
- Immune Cell Interplay in the Fight Against GBM.Cancers · 2025Review
- Study on the anti-tumor effect of PDL1-CAR-γδT cells constructed with nanobody sequences on glioblastoma.American journal of cancer research · 2025Article
- The current landscape of optogenetics for the enhancement of adoptive T-cell therapy.Discovery immunology · 2025Review
- Tumor-infiltrating CD8Heliyon · 2024Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients with progressive primary brain tumors (PBT) are attracted to promising new treatments, even prior to convincing data. Anti-PD1 immunotherapies have been in the spotlight since publication of groundbreaking results for metastatic melanoma with pembrolizumab (PBL). Our objective was to report on the response and toxicity of PBL in patients with advanced PBT. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 22 patients (17 adults and 5 children) with recurrent central nervous system tumors treated with PBL. We analyzed prior antineoplastic therapies, steroid usage, and outcomes. Patients received a median of two neoplastic therapies prior to PBL, and a median of three infusions of PBL in adults and four in children. Twelve patients (9 adults and 3 children) started PBL on steroids (median dose in adults 4 mg; range 2-8, and in children 1.5 mg, range 0.5-4) and five patients received steroids later during PBL treatment. Twelve patients (10 adults and 2 children) received concomitant bevacizumab with PBL. Side effects were minimal. All patients showed progressive tumor growth during therapy. Median OS from the start of PBL was 2.6 months in adults and 3.2 months in children. Two GB patients underwent tumor resection following treatment with PBL. Tumor-lymphocytic response in these cases was unremarkable, and PD-L1 immuno-staining was negative. In this series of 22 patients with recurrent primary brain tumors, PBL showed no clinical or histologic efficacy. We do not recommend further use of PBL for recurrent PBT unless convincing prospective clinical trial data are published.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.