Science and Research

The SITC Board of Directors set a future-focused, innovative, and collaborative scientific roadmap for the field through a discrete set of themes and initiatives in 2023. Featured among those efforts was exploration of immuno-engineering, pre-malignant immunity, and immune deserts. Often these scientific topics are complimented by selected special series in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer such as computational immuno-oncology and liquid biopsies.

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

The Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) is the society’s open access, peer-reviewed online journal. Readers from over 200 countries and territories throughout the world visited the journal in 2023, and over 9,000 followers “got social” with JITC via the journal’s official X/Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

Impact Factor:
10.9
5-Year Impact Factor:
12.6
CiteScore:
16.8
Acceptance Rate:
21%

Special Series

Liquid Biopsies Coming of Age: Biology, Emerging Technologies, and Clinical Translation

Authored by leading voices in cancer biology, technology development, and immuno-oncology, this JITC series features five expert-opinion focused review articles on liquid biopsy- and ctDNA-related uses in immuno-oncology, with accompanying viewpoint letters from expert physicians that focus primarily on clinical relevance, challenges, and applicability. The series captures and synthesizes the current state of science of liquid biopsies, near-term and future applications, and their clinical relevance for cancer immunotherapy and beyond as they gain momentum as minimally invasive means for cancer detection, characterization, monitoring, and interception.

Valsamo (Elsa) Anagnostou, MD, PhD
Guest Editor

Mark D. Stewart, PhD
Guest Editor

Computational Immuno-Oncology

This collection of reviews expands upon the topics and concepts presented in the SITC-NCI Computational Immuno-Oncology Webinar Series. It aims to provide clarity and guidance to the discourse on data science technologies and analyses among researchers and clinicians, as well as to serve as an impetus for translational immunotherapy research. Series reviews began publishing in 2023 and will continue in 2024.





Alan Hutson, PhD
Guest Editor

Immunoprevention Virtual Summit

The SITC Immunoprevention Virtual Summit investigated the scientific landscape of premalignant immunity, from immunoprevention to cancer interception, serving also as a platform to advocate for the widespread need for preventative methods and research. This open-door virtual educational event presented the state of the field and included participation of the stakeholders involved in this research including funding agencies, academic researchers, the FDA, and industry. 

Leisha A. Emens, MD, PhD
Ankyra Therapeutics
Immunoprevention Summit Co-Chair

Sasha Stanton, MD PhD
Providence Cancer Institute/Earle A. Chiles Cancer Research Institute
Immunoprevention Summit
Co-Chair

Immuno-Engineering Workshop

SITC held the first-of-its-kind Immuno-Engineering Workshop, which was designed as a problem-based think tank. Leaders from the IO community presented a hurdle or issue in the field and leaders from the engineering field shared potential solutions or tools to address that hurdle. The think tank explored a range of opportunities for engineering solutions to immunotherapy challenges, such as monitoring changes in the tumor/host interaction, better approaches to control immune targeting, function, regulation, and orchestration of signals, as well as technologies for understanding the tumor/host as a complex system. The SITC Board of Directors used the think tank as the foundation for the 2024 Annual Meeting Workshop, which will focus on immuno-engineering with both invited faculty as well as dedicated abstracts.

Immune Exclusion Virtual Summit

SITC hosted the Immune Exclusion Virtual Summit with over 25 panelists representing worldwide academic and industry research. The Summit highlighted the latest investigations into the mechanisms of immune exclusion among different tumor types and molecular tools available to study immune-excluded tumors. With cutting edge topics such as the pathology and clinical and therapeutic implications of immune exclusion, mechanisms of immune exclusion, diagnostics for immune exclusion, and current therapeutic strategies for immune exclusion, the Summit laid a broad foundation for future SITC initiatives into this growing area of research.

Dan Chen, MD, PhD
Engenuity Life Sciences
Immune Exclusion Virtual Summit Co-Chair

Leisha A. Emens, MD, PhD
Ankyra Therpeutics
Immune Exclusion Virtual Summit Co-Chair