Adilio Hormigo, MD, PhD, discusses a clinical study on the safety and tolerability of laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) and avelumab for recurrent glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is a fatal disease with no standard care for disease progression and is known to evade the immune system. Avelumab is a human IgG1 antibody that binds PD-L1 and blocks the interaction between PD-L1 and its receptors PD-1 and B7-1. Consequently, the suppressive effect on T cell function is inhibited and anti-tumor CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity is restored. LITT is a minimally invasive technique that allows the delivery of light energy, causing disruption of the blood-brain barrier and hyperthermia of a brain lesion, initiating a cascade of events leading to coagulative necrosis and potentially triggering immunogenic death of cancer cells. This clinical trial seeks to determine whether avelumab combined with MRI-guided LITT has acceptable safety and tolerability and will generate robust immunomodulation and clinical activity to treat brain cancer.