Recent Articles
May Tun Saung, Stephen Muth, Ding Ding, Dwayne L. Thomas II, Alex B. Blair, Takahiro Tsujikawa, Lisa Coussens, Elizabeth M. Jaffee and Lei Zheng
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:118 (13 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"Our study demonstrated that blocking myeloid cells through an antibody targeting CSF1R, in combination with anti-PD-1 antibody, is able to convert PD-1 positive T-cells, which are induced by a cancer vaccine, into activated and functional T-cells, as well as expand this population of cytotoxic T-cells within the tumors in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer."
Lei Zheng, MD, PhD — Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Thibault Comont, Vincent Sibaud, Loïc Mourey, Pierre Cougoul and Odile Beyne-Rauzy
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:120 (16 November 2018)
Commentary
From the Authors
"In response to “Ipilimumab induced vasculitis” by Padda A. et al., J Immunother Cancer. 2018;6:12, we report a new case of a small vasculitis with digital necrosis as an immune related adverse event secondary to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). In contrast to Padda's report we add some different findings: combination of ICI with new molecules, very good outcome after treatment with steroids, stability of cancer despite ICI withdraw. We also summarize others reports previously published."
Thibault Comont, MD — Institut Universitaire du Cancer Toulouse Oncopole
Matthew J. Reilley, Patricia McCoon, Carl Cook, Paul Lyne, Razelle Kurzrock, Youngsoo Kim, Richard Woessner, Anas Younes, John Nemunaitis, Nathan Fowler, Michael Curran, Qinying Liu, Tianyuan Zhou, Joanna Schmidt, Minji Jo, Samantha J. Lee, Mason Yamashita, Steven G. Hughes, Luis Fayad, Sarina Piha-Paul, Murali V. P. Nadella, Xiaokun Xiao, Jeff Hsu, Alexey Revenko, Brett P. Monia, A. Robert MacLeod and David S. Hong
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:119 (16 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"AZD9150 (danvatirsen) is a novel antisense oligonucleotide targeting STAT3. This paper showed for the first time the potential of danvatirsen and its effect as a possible immunotherapeutic agent. Recently, data from the SCORES study of danvatirsen and durvalumab (antiPDL-1 inhibitor) presented at ESMO 2018 showed promising activity in 2nd line head and neck cancer patients with an overall response rate of 26%. These results suggests enhanced activity of the combination and prompt further studies."
David S. Hong, MD — The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Sarah Q. Crome and Pamela S. Ohashi
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:121 (19 November 2018)
Commentary
Excerpt:
"The mechanisms behind [innate lymphoid cells] ILC-mediated regulation are only beginning to be understood, but emerging evidence supports that in addition to indirect regulation via cytokine production or effects on antigen presenting cells or other ILCs, direct ILC-T cell interactions shape the outcome of different immune responses."
David M. Miller, Ryan M. Trowbridge, Anupam Desai and Reed E. Drews
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:122 (19 November 2018)
Case Report
From the Authors
"This case highlights the complexities of caring for patients with coexistent cancers by demonstrating the rapid progression of primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma following checkpoint inhibitor therapy for metastatic melanoma and introduces a novel adverse effect of oncolytic viral therapy: Kaposi’s varicelliform eruption."
David M. Miller, MD, PhD — Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Fanny Ledys, Quentin Klopfenstein, Caroline Truntzer, Laurent Arnould, Julie Vincent, Leila Bengrine, Romain Remark, Romain Boidot, Sylvain Ladoire, François Ghiringhelli and Valentin Derangere
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:123 (19 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"T cells infiltrates are known to impact on colorectal cancer prognostic in both localized and metastatic tumor, but the effect of RAS mutation and chemotherapy is poorly known. Using a retrospective cohort of 114 patients treated by surgery of liver metastasis of colorectal cancer we observed that high CD8+ cells infiltrate and high HLA-I expression were associated with a better overall survival in both univariate and multivariate model. Moreover, CD8+ cells immune infiltrate at invasive margin combined to HLA expression in cancer cell could increase patient’s outcome prediction.
RAS status was associated with HLA expression on tumor cells but not with immune cell infiltration. In comparison to untreated patients, neoadjuvant chemotherapy induced CD8+ cells recruitment and increased PD-L1 staining in immune infiltrates only for wild type RAS patients. In this context, anti-EGFR and oxaliplatin based chemotherapy are the most powerful to induce CD8+ cells mobilization within the metastatic site. Together these data underline that CD8 infiltrate and HLA expression are prognostic for metastatic colorectal cancer, CD8 and PD-L1 infiltrate are enhanced by neoadjuvant chemotherapy under RAS status dependence."
François Ghiringhelli, MD, PhD — Institut National De La Sante Et De Le Recherche Medicale (INSERM)
Bin Wu, Qiang Zhang and Jie Sun
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:124 (20 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"The high costs of immune checkpoint inhibitors are concerned by decision-makers. This article found nivolumab plus ipilimumab as first-line treatment could gain more health benefits for advanced RCC in comparison with standard sunitinib, which is considered to be cost-effective in the US and China but not in the UK. To improve the affordability, we recommend the producers reduce the costs of immune checkpoint inhibitors."
Jie Sun — Shanghai Jiaotong University
Zishuo Ian Hu, Matthew D. Hellmann, Jedd D. Wolchok, Monika Vyas, Jinru Shia, Zsofia K. Stadler, Luis A. Diaz Jr and Eileen M. O’Reilly
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:127 (20 November 2018)
Case Report
From the Authors
"A small subset of patients with pancreas ductal adenocarcinoma have mismatch repair deficiency (approx 1%). These are important individuals to identify from the targeted therapeutic perspective and from the perspective of family genetic screening. This report comments on potential mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy in a patient with MSI-H pancreas adenocarcinoma receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapy."
Eileen M. O'Reilly, MD — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Francesco Sabbatino, Antonio Marra, Luigi Liguori, Giosuè Scognamiglio, Celeste Fusciello, Gerardo Botti, Soldano Ferrone and Stefano Pepe
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:126 (20 November 2018)
Case Report
About:
"Although preclinical evidence suggests a potential role of immune checkpoint inhibitors for treatment of basal cell carcinoma, limited clinical data is available. This case study describes a patient being treated with nivolumab for a responsive non-small cell carcinoma and his subsequent development and relapse of a basal cell carcinoma tumor."
Ian Lai, Srividya Swaminathan, Virginie Baylot, Adriane Mosley, Renumathy Dhanasekaran, Meital Gabay and Dean W. Felsher
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:125 (20 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"Our recent work has suggested that oncogenes such as MYC are playing a direct role in regulating the immune microenvironment. Now, we have found that we can utilize nanotechnology to deliver IL-12 to restore the immune response against MYC driven liver cancer. We believe that more generally insight into the molecular etiology of cancer can guide immune therapy to treat cancer."
Dean W. Felsher, MD, PhD — Stanford University School of Medicine
Vivek Verma, Tanja Sprave, Waqar Haque, Charles B. Simone II, Joe Y. Chang, James W. Welsh and Charles R. Thomas Jr
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:128 (23 November 2018)
Review
From the Authors
"This study is the only known summative analysis of the economic impact of influential but expensive therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors."
Vivek Verma, PhD — GRU Cancer Center
Aixa E. Soyano, Bhagirathbhai Dholaria, Julian A. Marin-Acevedo, Nancy Diehl, David Hodge, Yan Luo, Rami Manochakian, Saranya Chumsri, Alex Adjei, Keith L. Knutson and Yanyan Lou
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:129 (23 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"Anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) antibodies have demonstrated improved overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in a subset of patients with metastatic or locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To date, no blood biomarkers have been identified in NSCLC to predict clinical outcomes of treatment with anti-PD-1 antibodies. We performed an analysis of 157 patients with advanced NSCLC treated with anti-PD-1 antibodies at our institution. We found that increased baseline ANC: ALC ratio and M: L ratio before initiation of anti-PD1 antibodies were associated with poor PFS and OS in advanced NSCLC patients. The potential predictive value of these readily available biomarkers might help with risk stratification and treatment strategies."
Yanyan Lou, MD — Mayo Clinic
Leandro J. C. Oliveira, Aline B. L. Gongora, Felipe G. Barbosa, Carlos H. dos Anjos and Rodrigo R. Munhoz
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:130 (27 November 2018)
Case Report
Excerpt:
"We present a case of a patient developing an atypical pattern of response, marked by bone pseudoprogression during therapy with nivolumab for advanced CSCC, followed by sustained response."
Natalie J. Miller, Candice D. Church, Steven P. Fling, Rima Kulikauskas, Nirasha Ramchurren, Michi M. Shinohara, Harriet M. Kluger, Shailender Bhatia, Lisa Lundgren, Martin A. Cheever, Suzanne L. Topalian and Paul Nghiem
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:131 (27 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) patients have a high overall response rate (56%) to anti-PD-1 therapy. Approximately 80% of all MCCs are driven by viral oncoproteins from the Merkel cell polyomavirus leading to shared tumor antigens among most patients. We took advantage of this unique opportunity to assess the B and T cell immune responses in MCC patients receiving anti-PD-1 therapy. We found striking differences in the nature of immune response to virus-positive as compared to virus-negative MCC, despite both subtypes having excellent response rates."
Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD — University of Washington
Daqian Gu, Xiang Ao, Yu Yang, Zhuo Chen and Xiang Xu
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:132 (27 November 2018)
Review
Excerpt:
"The natural soluble forms of receptors and ligands are important components of immune regulation, although their definitive mechanisms of action have not been determined. In this review, we selected sPD-1, sPD-L1, sPD-L2, sCTLA-4, sCD80, sCD86, sB7-H3 and sCD137 for analysis. All of these molecules may play important roles in cancer."
Jacek Mackiewicz, Tomasz Burzykowski, Dariusz Iżycki and Andrzej Mackiewicz
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:134 (29 November 2018)
Clinical Trials Monitor
From the Authors
"In the currently presented analysis we observed that treatment beyond recurrence with initial re-induction (8 doses of AGI-101H every 2 weeks), and followed by maintenance every 4 weeks was linked with reduction of mortality hazard in both Trial 3 and Trial 5, though it reached statistical significance only in Trial 5. These observations show that some patients might benefit from treatment beyond recurrence/progression with additional re-induction."
Kathleen E. Fenerty, Michelle Padget, Benjamin Wolfson, Sofia R. Gameiro, Zhen Su, John H. Lee, Shahrooz Rabizadeh, Patrick Soon-Shiong and James W. Hodge
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:133 (29 November 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"We identified an off-target activity of the PARP inhibitor Olaparib that could be exploited for immunotherapy. Olaparib significantly increased tumor cell sensitivity to NK-mediated killing and anti-PD-L1 or anti-EGFR ADCC in both BRCA WT and BRCA mutant tumor cells, independent of PD-L1 or EGFR) modulation, mediated by upregulation of TRAIL-R2. These studies support the combined use of NK- and ADCC-mediating agents with PARPi in BRCA mutant and WT carcinoma."
James W. Hodge, PhD, MBA — National Cancer Institute
Yaxiong Zhang, Huaqiang Zhou and Li Zhang
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:135 (3 December 2018)
Commentary
From the Authors
"There is no head-to-head comparison of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy vs. atezolizumab plus chemotherapy. Therefore, we performed an indirect comparison of KEYNOTE-407 and IMpower131 to explore the optimal choice of anti-PD-(L)1 treatment for advanced squamous NSCLC in combination with chemotherapy."
Lisa H. Butterfield, Mary L. Disis, Bernard A. Fox, David R. Kaufman, Samir N. Khleif, Ena Wang and on behalf of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Immuno-Oncology Biomarkers: State of the Art workshop speakers
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:138 (4 December 2018)
Review
From the Authors
"The identification of useful biomarkers represents a worldwide effort in clinical immune oncology to guide patient selection, enhance chances of therapeutic success and improve therapeutic window by decreasing unwanted toxicities. This report summarizes the opinion of global experts on the implementation of state of the art technologies and the identification of challenges limited the advancement of the field. In addition, it highlights the new initiatives driven by the SITC Biomarkers Committee."
Ena Wang, MD — Allogene
Junaid Raja, Johannes M. Ludwig, Scott N. Gettinger, Kurt A. Schalper and Hyun S. Kim
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:140 (4 December 2018)
Review
From the Authors
"In the time of new and promising immuno-oncologic therapies, image-guided oncoviral therapy offers another avenue of hope for patients with previously unresectable, advanced malignancies not amenable to other classical oncologic therapies. The idea of image directed, locally delivered, molecular therapy supplemented by immune conditioning by which the delivered particles induce an indirect native tissue response is a patient-centered and personalized approach."
Hyun S. Kim, MD — Yale School of Medicine
Jiao Wang, Kyle B. Lupo, Andrea M. Chambers and Sandro Matosevic
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:136 (4 December 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"Our study shows that natural killer (NK) cells to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) against NKG2D ligands on cancer cells, show enhanced anti-tumor immunity and can mediate more efficient killing of solid tumors when combined with targeting of the purinergic cascade via CD73 in vivo. CD73, expressed on many solid tumors including glioblastoma and lung cancer, is a key component of the enzymatic cascade involved in the generation of extracellular adenosine, which we show leads to impaired NK cell effector function. Here, by combining CAR-NK cells engineered non-virally using a piggyBac vector system with CD73 targeting, we show, for the first time, both an improved immunotherapeutic effect and enhanced intratumoral penetration of these engineered NK cells in vivo."
Sandro Matosevic, PhD — Purdue University
Michael M. Boyiadzis, Madhav V. Dhodapkar, Renier J. Brentjens, James N. Kochenderfer, Sattva S. Neelapu, Marcela V. Maus, David L. Porter, David G. Maloney, Stephan A. Grupp, Crystal L. Mackall, Carl H. June and Michael R. Bishop
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:137 (4 December 2018)
Review
From the Authors
"Our purpose here is to discuss the history of CAR T therapies, review the current toxicity management protocols, and provide an overview of in-development technologies for clinicians who will be treating patients with or referring patients for these groundbreaking therapies."
Fatima Karzai, David VanderWeele, Ravi A. Madan, Helen Owens, Lisa M. Cordes, Amy Hankin, Anna Couvillon, Erin Nichols, Marijo Bilusic, Michael L. Beshiri, Kathleen Kelly, Venkatesh Krishnasamy, Sunmin Lee, Min-Jung Lee, Akira Yuno, Jane B. Trepel, Maria J. Merino, Ryan Dittamore, Jennifer Marté, Renee N. Donahue, Jeffrey Schlom, Keith J. Killian, Paul S. Meltzer, Seth M. Steinberg, James L. Gulley, Jung-Min Lee and William L. Dahut
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:141 (4 December 2018)
Research Article
From the Authors
"It’s exciting to see deep prolonged responses in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer when combining durvalumab with olaparib. This was particularly strikingly in men with germline or somatic DDR abnormalities. Additional patients will be studied to better define the activity and to help elucidate the biology."
William L. Dahut, MD — National Cancer Institute, NIH
Iva Truxova, Lenka Kasikova, Michal Hensler, Petr Skapa, Jan Laco, Ladislav Pecen, Lucie Belicova, Ivan Praznovec, Michael J. Halaska, Tomas Brtnicky, Eva Salkova, Lukas Rob, Roman Kodet, Jeremy Goc, Catherine Sautes-Fridman, Wolf Herman Fridman, Ales Ryska, Lorenzo Galluzzi, Radek Spisek and Jitka Fucikova
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:139 (4 December 2018)
Research Article
Excerpt:
"By combining IHC and biomolecular analyses, we comprehensively documented for the first time the influence of both mature DCs [dendritic cells] and CD20+ B cells on the establishment of the immune contexture of HGSC [high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma]."
Highly Accessed Articles
Apostolia M. Tsimberidou, Laura A. Levit, Richard L. Schilsky, Steven D. Averbuch, Daniel Chen, John M. Kirkwood, Lisa M. McShane, Elad Sharon, Kathryn F. Mileham and Michael A. Postow
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2018, 6:108 (19 October 2018)
Asim Amin, Elizabeth R Plimack, Marc S Ernstoff, Lionel D Lewis, Todd M Bauer, David F McDermott, Michael Carducci, Christian Kollmannsberger, Brian I Rini, Daniel Y C Heng, Jennifer Knox, Martin H Voss, Jennifer Spratlin, Elmer Berghorn, Lingfeng Yang and Hans J Hammers
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2018, 6:109 (22 October 2018)
Yasuko Tada, Yosuke Togashi, Daisuke Kotani, Takeshi Kuwata, Eichi Sato, Akihito Kawazoe, Toshihiko Doi, Hisashi Wada, Hiroyoshi Nishikawa and Kohei Shitara
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2018, 6:106 (11 October 2018)