Cancer Immune Responsiveness Task Force

On May 23, 2019, members of the SITC Cancer Immune Responsiveness Task Force published Toward a comprehensive view of cancer immune responsiveness: a synopsis from the SITC workshop in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC). The manuscript reports out progress achieved as a result of the 2018 Cancer Immune Responsiveness Workshop.

Tumor immunology has changed the landscape of cancer treatment, but cancer immune responsiveness (CIR) remains a limitation in a considerable proportion of cases. The SITC CIR Task Force was the driving force behind the workshop held in 2018 aimed at identifying the fundamental questions of CIR, as a first milestone in the path toward a more contemporary understanding of CIR. This manuscript summarizes the contributions from working groups aiming at each CIR-related field including: 1) Germline-Genetic, 2) Somatic-Genetic and 3) Genomic-Transcriptional Contributions to CIR, 4) Determinant(s) of Immunogenic Cell Death that Modulate CIR, and 5) Experimental Models that Best Represent CIR.

Building upon the success of 2018’s Interim Workshop on Cancer Immune Responsiveness (CIR), the goal of the 2019 CIR workshop was the continued advancement of knowledge in the field about interactions between the immune system and cancer that contribute to immunotherapy response and resistance.

Over this two-day workshop, participants took part in both didactic sessions and working groups to identify and address key questions in the field concerning cancer immune responsiveness.Topics discussed included:

• The role of host genetics and epigenetics in immune responsiveness
• Transcription patterns indicative of distinct tumor immune landscapes
• Novel therapeutic strategies and related analytical approaches that involve modification of the tumor microenvironment
• Circumstantial/environmental factors that may help determine the immunological constant of rejection in the context of cancer