Oxidized lipids keep heat shock chaperones busy: new insights on the deficiencies of tumour-associated dendritic cells

In a recent publication in Nature Communications the group of Dr. Dmitry Gabrilovich takes us one step closer to understanding why lipid accumulation impairs the function of tumour-associated dendritic cells (DCs...

Authors: Paula Nunes-Hasler

Immune oncology, immune responsiveness and the theory of everything

Anti-cancer immunotherapy is encountering its own checkpoint. Responses are dramatic and long lasting but occur in a subset of tumors and are largely dependent upon the pre-existing immune contexture of indivi...

Authors: Tolga Turan, Deepti Kannan, Maulik Patel, J. Matthew Barnes, Sonia G. Tanlimco, Rongze Lu, Kyle Halliwill, Sarah Kongpachith, Douglas E. Kline, Wouter Hendrickx, Alessandra Cesano, Lisa H. Butterfield, Howard L. Kaufman, Thomas J. Hudson, Davide Bedognetti, Francesco Marincola…

Viruses, bacteria, and parasites – oh my! a resurgence of interest in microbial-based therapy for cancer

As infections and cancer are two of the most common maladies affecting human beings, a concerted effort is needed to better understand their potential interactions and to further explore their use in microbial...

Authors: Andrew Zloza

Transplanters drive CARs to the clinic by brewing ICE-T: the Moffitt roadmap

Recent single institution clinical trial successes with anti-CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for B cell malignancies attracted significant attention from industry. Our center sought to rapi...

Authors: Frederick L. Locke and Claudio Anasetti

Sudden hearing loss in a melanoma patient on pembrolizumab: an etiology not to be omitted in the differential diagnosis

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as a promising therapeutic option for metastatic cancers. However, they have been associated with inflammatory adverse reactions in various organ systems. A recent art...

Authors: Marc-Elie Nader, Jeffrey N. Myers and Paul W. Gidley

Immunotherapy resistance: the answers lie ahead – not in front – of us

Mechanisms of innate and adaptive resistance to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy are under intense investigation with a view to broadening the therapeutic potential of this form of treatment. In a recent manu...

Authors: Miles C. Andrews and Jennifer A. Wargo

FAK-inhibition opens the door to checkpoint immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Immunotherapy has had remarkable success in the treatment of some cancer types. However, pancreatic cancer has remained largely refractory to immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitors. Recently, Ji...

Authors: Stefan N. Symeonides, Stephen M. Anderton and Alan Serrels

Potassium channels of T lymphocytes take center stage in the fight against cancer

A recent study by Eil at al. published in Nature in September 2016 provides evidence that alterations of the K⁺ homeostasis of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in necrotic areas of the tumor microenvironment...

Authors: Laura Conforti

It’s a long way to the top (if you want to personalize immunotherapy)

Harnessing the immune system to attack tumor cells by targeting tumor-associated or –preferably– tumor-specific antigens has emerged as a promising but challenging treatment option for malignant lymphomas. Fol...

Authors: Sarah Haebe and Oliver Weigert

Being “penny-wise but pound foolish” in cancer immunotherapy research: the urgent need for mouse cancer models to reflect human modifying factors

Inbred mice are the mainstay for preclinical cancer assessment of potential therapeutics, especially immune-based approaches. However, the use of young, lean, inbred mice housed under specific-pathogen-free co...

Authors: William J. Murphy

A quantum leap in cancer vaccines?

Authors: Eli Gilboa

Application of the Immunoscore as prognostic tool for hepatocellular carcinoma

To date, the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) tumor, nodes, metastasis (TNM) classification represents the standard system for evaluation of progn...

Authors: Annacarmen Petrizzo and Luigi Buonaguro

Re-discovering NK cell allo-reactivity in the therapy of solid tumors

Authors: Luca Castagna and Domenico Mavilio

It’s TIME for a biomarker-driven approach to cancer immunotherapy

Authors: Leisha A. Emens

Circulating protein and antibody biomarker for personalized cancer immunotherapy

Immune checkpoint blockade therapies are revolutionizing standard cancer treatments. Immune checkpoint inhibitors likely function to enhance the tumor specific antigen response in order to achieve favorable cl...

Authors: Jianda Yuan

Cancer immunotherapy trials: leading a paradigm shift in drug development

Authors: Leisha A. Emens, Lisa H. Butterfield, F. Stephen Hodi Jr., Francesco M. Marincola and Howard L. Kaufman

NLRC5, a promising new entry in tumor immunology

The recent use of T cell-based cancer immunotherapies, such as adoptive T-cell transfer and checkpoint blockade, yields increasing clinical benefit to patients with different cancer types. However, decrease of...

Authors: Sonia T. Chelbi and Greta Guarda

Immune-related response evaluations during immune-checkpoint inhibitor therapy: establishing a “common language” for the new arena of cancer treatment

The recent study by Hodi et al. published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has evaluated unconventional response patterns during PD-1 inhibitor therapy using immune-related response criteria (irRC) in compa...

Authors: Mizuki Nishino

How do I steer this thing? Using dendritic cell targeted vaccination to more effectively guide the antitumor immune response with combination immunotherapy

Mounting an immune response sufficient to eradicate a tumor is the goal of modern immunotherapy. Single agent therapies with checkpoint inhibitors or costimulatory molecule agonists are effective only for a sm...

Authors: Stefanie N. Linch and William L. Redmond

Society for immunotherapy of cancer (SITC) statement on the proposed changes to the common rule

The Common Rule is a set of ethical principles that provide guidance on the management of human subjects taking part in biomedical and behavioral research in the United States. The elements of the Common Rule ...

Authors: Howard L. Kaufman, Lisa H. Butterfield, Pierre G. Coulie, Sandra Demaria, Robert L. Ferris, Jérôme Galon, Samir N. Khleif, Ira Mellman, Pamela S. Ohashi, Willem W. Overwijk, Suzanne L. Topalian and Francesco M. Marincola