Program Purpose
As the categories and number of immunotherapies in clinical practice diversified, it became evident that renewed efforts to characterize and address mechanisms of primary immune resistance and secondary treatment failures are needed. This forum covered current mechanistic understanding of pre-existing and acquired mechanisms of immune resistance to interventions such as immune checkpoint blockade and CAR T cell therapy, with a focus on tumor microenvironment. This was complemented by the newest information pointing to biomarkers that could be useful to identify appropriate immune interventions or combination therapies to overcome such immune resistance. Finally, a series of panel discussions addressed how specific categories of immune therapies such as immune checkpoint blockade, oncolytic viruses and T cell therapies could be utilized most judiciously to maximize the likelihood of clinical success of immunotherapy in face of the diversity of resistance mechanisms.
Click here to view the full SITC 2018 schedule online or click here to download a PDF of the full SITC 2018 schedule.
Program Organizers
This program was organized in collaboration with the SITC Industry Committee. The following individuals are recognized for their leadership in developing this session:
- Adrian Bot, MD, PhD – Kite, a Gilead Company
- Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD – Nanostring, Inc.
- Daniel S. Chen, MD, PhD – IGM Biosciences, Inc.
- Howard Kaufman, MD, FACS – Replimune Group Inc.
- Salil Patel, PhD – Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Eric Rubin, MD – Merck & Co., Inc.