Symposium To Highlight Strategies To Overcome Cancer Immunosuppression During Treatment

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  Conferences
Article Date: 30 Sep 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Three-hundred cancer vaccine researchers and immunologists from academia and industry will meet for three days in New York City to discuss the different ways cancer exploits the human body's self-protective mechanisms of immune regulation to avoid elimination by the immune system, a problem which researchers in the field have identified as one of the key challenges to therapeutic cancer vaccination. The conference, titled "Control of Cancer Immunosuppression: The Challenge for Cancer Vaccine Development," will take place September 30 to October 2, 2009, at the Millennium Conference Center in the heart of Manhattan.

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of immune-based approaches to cancer treatment, control, diagnosis, and prevention, is sponsoring the event. It is the seventeenth in the CRI Annual International Cancer Immunotherapy Symposia Series.

Twenty-five plenary lectures and a poster session will address topics including: cellular and molecular mediators of cancer immunosuppression, targets for immunotherapy of cancer, and strategies to overcome cancer immunosuppression during cancer treatment.

Presentation highlights include:

-- Regulatory T cells and their suppression program, by Dr. Alexander Rudensky, HHMI and Immunology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

-- Antigen immunoselection as an escape mechanism during cancer immunoediting, by Dr. Robert D. Schreiber, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

-- Modulating innate and adaptive immunity through the manipulation of dendritic cells, by Dr. Nina Bhardwaj, New York University Langone Medical Center and NYU Cancer Institute, New York, NY

-- Regulation of tumor-associated inflammation by epithelial cell cytokines, by Giorgio Trinchieri, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD

-- Checkpoint blockade in tumor immunotherapy, by Dr. James P. Allison, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, HHMI, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

-- From immunosuppression to immune recognition: Antigen-specific cancer immunotherapy, by Dr. Vincent G. Brichard, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Rixensart, Belgium

-- Prioritization of cancer antigens and immunotherapeutic agents for vaccine trials, by Dr. Martin A. Cheever, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

-- Recombinant viral vectors as a platform for cancer vaccines, by Dr. Kunle Odunsi, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY

-- Objective clinical responses by therapeutic vaccination with synthetic long peptides, by Dr. Cornelis J.M. Melief, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

-- Correlative immunological results of compassionate-use trial of Ipilimumab, by Dr. Jedd D. Wolchok, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

About the Cancer Research Institute

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is the world's only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the support and coordination of scientific and clinical efforts that will lead to the immunological treatment, control, and prevention of cancer.

Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes four Nobel Prize winners and twenty-nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI supports leading-edge cancer research at top medical centers and universities throughout the world. CRI is an initiator and steward of global collaborative research efforts aimed at accelerating the translation of basic discovery into effective cancer vaccines and other immune-based therapies to provide new hope to cancer patients.

The Cancer Research Institute has one of the lowest overhead expense ratios among non-profit organizations, with more than 85 percent of its resources going directly to the support of its science, medical, and research programs. CRI meets or exceeds all 20 standards of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, the most comprehensive U.S. charity evaluation service, and according to Charity Navigator exceeds or meets industry standards and performs as well as or better than most cancer charities. CRI has also received an 'A' grade for fiscal disclosure and efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy as well as top accolades from other charity watchdog organizations.

Source: Cancer Research Institute

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