Session 100: Update Session
Session 101: Richard V. Smalley, MD Memorial Award and Lectureship
Speakers: Lieping Chen, MD, PhD, Gordon Freeman, PhD, Arlene Sharpe, MD, PhD
Session 102: Combinatorial Therapies
Session 103: Late-Breaking Abstract Session
Session 104: NCI Session on Integrating Radiation and Immunotherapy
Session 105: Toxicities of Cancer Immunotherapies
Concurrent Session 106: Developing Cellular Therapies for Solid Cancers
Concurrent Session 107: Neoadjuvant Immunotherapies
Concurrent Session 108: Diet and Microbiome
Concurrent Session 109: Innate Immunity: The Next Generation of Targets for Anti-Cancer Immunotherapy
Session 110: Poster Symposium
The Surgeon's Impact on Tumor Hypnotherapy: Recent Achievements and Future Promise
Tumor immunotherapy has revolutionized the management of patients with cancer over the past decade. Surgeons have played an important role in the field through research and using unique insights into the pathophysiology of cancer to access, collect, process and study biospecimens from patients. Surgical investigators have had major impacts on the development of cytokine therapy, such as high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2), oncolytic viruses, adoptive cell therapy, tumor vaccine research and provided direction for the development of neoadjuvant immunotherapy. Surgical input to optimize tissue collection and promote immunologic biomarker assessment has become increasingly important and surgeons are engaging more commonly in early phase clinical development of immune-oncology agents to ensure high quality tissue availability for genomics and cellular immunology investigation. The surgeon’s perspective provides unique insights into the immunobiology of cancer. These interactions with patients combined with individual surgeons who have backgrounds in science and immunology in particular breed many in the surgical field to design and implement critical and impactful immunotherapy trials
This session will highlight some of the major accomplishments by surgical investigators in the field of immunotherapy. In addition, high impact research by surgical laboratories and studies that provide surgical perspectives will be featured. Finally, the session will provide an overview of the surgeon’s contributions to cancer immunotherapy and discuss promising areas of future research that will require surgical input and expertise.
Session 200: Update Session
Session 201: Keynote Address
Session 202: Exploring the Tumor Microenvironment
Session 203: Late-Breaking Abstract Session
Session 204: Update Session
Concurrent Rapid Oral Abstract Presentation Session 205: Basic Research
Concurrent Rapid Oral Abstract Presentation Session 206: Clinical
Session 207: Presidential Session
Concurrent Session 208: Vaccines and Immunoprevention
Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors have reinforced the notion that the immune system can mount effective antitumor immune responses, if tumor-associated immunosuppression is overcome by immune checkpoint blockade. Better understanding of tumorigenic process between emerging tumor cell clones and the host immune surveillance machineries coupled with the expanding knowledge base in immuno-oncology provides a timely platform for discussing the principles of immune surveillance and tumor evasion mechanisms, immune correlates of protection, and emerging strategies for the development of more effective cancer vaccines tailored for distinct cohorts, such as genetically predisposed high-risk individuals (e.g. Lynch syndrome carriers) and those with precancerous lesions of viral or non-viral etiology. Elucidation of immuno-molecular mechanisms of early tumorigenic process can shed light on molecular physiological changes that are responsible for progressive tumor growth and the weakening of the immune defense mechanism, while identifying potential pathways to fortify crucial immune components associated with antitumor effects. Next-gen cancer vaccines for immunoprevention can be realized with full integration of advances in vaccinology, immuno-molecular oncology, and translational modalities.
In this session, key leaders in the field will review the current state-of-the-art understanding of tumor immune surveillance mechanisms, roles of innate and adaptive immune cells, and properties of durable antitumor immunity, and discuss the latest cancer vaccine development strategies, including antigenic epitope selection, vaccine design and delivery systems, and vaccine-induced immune correlates of protection.
Concurrent Session 209: Gene Editing
Concurrent Session 210: Cytokines and Bispecifics
Concurrent Session 211: Immunometabolism and ICI Resistance
Concurrent Session 212: Novel immunotherapies in myeloid malignancies
Concurrent Session 213: Reverse Translation for Clinical Trials
Concurrent Session 214: Engineering Immunity: Biomolecular and Genetic Approaches to Generating Novel Therapeutic Function
Recent developments in biomolecular engineering and genome editing has made possible the genetic manipulation of immune cells ex vivo and programming of immune milieus in vivo via rationally engineered genetic circuitry, synthetic proteins, and novel biomaterials. In this session, leading experts will discuss the engineering of biomaterials that modify, promote, and direct immune responses for therapeutic outcomes, as well as gene editing techniques that enable the implementation of diverse synthetic receptors, circuits, and other genetic designs in engineered cell-based therapy. Additional topics of interest include the molecular design of synthetic immune receptors and immunomodulator proteins, as well as the engineering of factors involved in the tumor microenvironment and their manipulation for the promotion of therapeutic response.
Concurrent Session 215: B Cells
B cells have recently come to the forefront of cancer immunotherapy, however, the role of B cells within tumors has been a controversial topic for many years. This session will highlight the importance of B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) within different human tumor micronenvironments. Specifically, it will emphasize the anti-tumor function of B cells in immune quiescent tumors (sarcoma), immune rich tumors (melanoma), and unique immune microenvironments (virally driven cancers). Further, it will address the importance of B cells and TLS in immunotherapy and cancer progression. The session will end with an expert discussant to project the landscape of this research niche over the next decade.
Session 300: Update Session
Session 301: 35th Anniversary Keynote Address
Session 302: Biomarkers and Big Data
Session 303: Late-Breaking Abstract Session
Concurrent Rapid Oral Abstract Presentation Session 304: Basic Research
Concurrent Rapid Oral Abstract Presentation Session 305: Clinical
Session 306: Hot Topic Symposium: COVID and Cancer
Session 307: 35th Anniversary Session: Mechanistic Understandings and Misunderstandings
Next Generation ImmunoOncology Combinations: FDA, Clinical Trial Designs, Diagnostics and Biomarkers