JITC Digest January 2018

Inside this Issue:

Letter from the Editor

Dear JITC Readers:

Happy New Year! With the new year comes a number of new and exciting developments for the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC).

JITC is pleased to announce its transition to a Continuous Article Publishing (CAP) model as of January 2018. Under the CAP model, all accepted articles are published immediately upon final production clearance, rather than scheduled for a future publication date/issue. This guarantees faster times to publication for all articles, ensuring new research is accessible and citable faster than ever before.

JITC will also be receiving its first Impact Factor in the 2018 Journal Citation Reports (JCR), due to publish this summer. In addition to all new articles being published in a journal with an impact factor, all authors who previously published in JITC will have their prior publications tied to this prestigious journal metric. My sincerest appreciation goes out to the many editors, reviewers, and authors who have contributed to JITC’s success over the past few years, bringing the journal to this important milestone.

In addition to expanded outreach for all published articles, JITC is providing a limited-time offer of additional promotional coverage for papers published in the three upcoming series: Emerging Immunotherapeutic Agents, New Regulatory Approvals in Cancer Immunotherapy, and Challenges in Clinical Management. Coverage includes dedicated series emails to SITC’s database of over 24,000 cancer immunotherapy professionals, social media promotion, an announcement on SITC CONNECT, and more. Submission guidelines and content scopes for these thematic series are now available with submissions welcome through Friday, March 2, 2018.

With best regards,
Pedro J. Romero, MD
Editor-in-Chief, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

Recent Articles

Cytokine release syndrome after radiation therapy: case report and review of the literature

Christopher A. Barker, Samuel K. Kim, Sadna Budhu, Konstantina Matsoukas, Anthony F. Daniyan and Sandra P. D’Angelo
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:1 (3 January 2018)

From the Authors

"Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is most frequently encountered after immunologic manipulation (such as antibody therapy) or insult (such as infection). We recently observed the development of CRS after radiotherapy in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia receiving pembrolizumab for Merkel cell carcinoma. To our knowledge, this has not been reported before, and may be an important adverse event to consider as immunotherapy and radiotherapy are combined in clinical settings."

Christopher A. Barker, MD — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Viruses, bacteria, and parasites – oh my! A resurgence of interest in microbial-based therapy for cancer

Andrew Zloza
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:3 (8 January 2018)

From the Author

"Many significant discoveries have been reported from ancient to recent times elucidating the interplay between pathogens and cancer. However, the full depth of this interaction has thus far not been sufficiently explored. This commentary briefly summarizes both positive and negative roles for pathogens in altering cancer outcomes and highlights unexpected contributions of non-oncogenic, non-oncolytic infections to the pathogen/tumor/immunity axis. Ultimately, it seeks to inspire support and collaboration across academia, government, industry, and foundations, towards harnessing the full potential of microbial-based cancer treatments to make the next major contribution to improving and saving the lives of patients with cancer."

Andrew Zloza, MD, PhD — Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

Concealed complete response in melanoma patients under therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors: two case reports

Stefan Schliep, Abbas Agaimy, Alexander Cavallaro, Franklin Kiesewetter, Gerold Schuler and Lucie Heinzerling
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 6:2 (15 January 2018)

From the Authors

"The assessment of response to cancer immunotherapy can be challenging. This article identifies the risk of misinterpretation of radiologic staging showing 'metastases' without viable tumor upon pathologic examination. To avoid overtreatment or unnecessary change in treatment, we recommend liberal biopsies for histologic assessment for the correct identification of responders to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy."

Stefan Schliep, MD — Universitätsklinikum Erlangen

Editors’ Picks: Top Articles from 2017

For a complete list of the Editors' Picks for Top Articles in 2017, click here.

Analyses of the peripheral immunome following multiple administrations of avelumab, a human IgG1 anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody

Renee N. Donahue, Lauren M. Lepone, Italia Grenga, Caroline Jochems, Massimo Fantini, Ravi A. Madan, Christopher R. Heery, James L. Gulley and Jeffrey Schlom
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 5:20 (21 February 2017)

Phase I clinical trial of combination imatinib and ipilimumab in patients with advanced malignancies

Matthew J. Reilley, Ann Bailey, Vivek Subbiah, Filip Janku, Aung Naing, Gerald Falchook, Daniel Karp, Sarina Piha-Paul, Apostolia Tsimberidou, Siqing Fu, JoAnn Lim, Stacie Bean, Allison Bass, Sandra Montez, Luis Vence, Padmanee Sharma, James Allison, Funda Meric-Bernstam and David S. Hong
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 5:35 (18 April 2017)

Combination immunotherapy: a road map

Patrick A. Ott, F. Stephen Hodi, Howard L. Kaufman, Jon M. Wigginton and Jedd D. Wolchok
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 5:16 (21 February 2017)

December Highly Accessed Articles

Characteristics and outcomes of patients with advanced sarcoma enrolled in early phase immunotherapy trials

Roman Groisberg, David S. Hong, Amini Behrang, Kenneth Hess, Filip Janku, Sarina Piha-Paul, Aung Naing, Siqing Fu, Robert Benjamin, Shreyaskumar Patel, Neeta Somaiah, Anthony Conley, Funda Meric-Bernstam and Vivek Subbiah
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 5:100 (19 December 2017)

Inhibition of arginase by CB-1158 blocks myeloid cell-mediated immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment

Susanne M. Steggerda, Mark K. Bennett, Jason Chen, Ethan Emberley, Tony Huang, Julie R. Janes, Weiqun Li, Andrew L. MacKinnon, Amani Makkouk, Gisele Marguier, Peter J. Murray, Silinda Neou, Alison Pan, Francesco Parlati, Mirna L. M. Rodriguez, Lee-Ann Van de Velde, Tracy Wang, Melissa Works, Jing Zhang, Winter Zhang and Matthew I. Gross
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 5:101 (19 December 2017)