A Message from the President
Dear Colleagues,
In my December President’s Message, I outlined our society’s future ambitions, focused on six strategic goals through 2021. This month, I’d like to describe some of the programs and initiatives to achieve those strategic goals.
SITC strives to be the most comprehensive and reliable resource for information and education on cancer immunotherapy. One way in which our society serves the greater cancer immunotherapy field is through our open access, peer-reviewed Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC). The quality of research presented in the journal has grown over the years and it is now arguably the top journal focusing on cancer immunotherapy. Given this growth, SITC officially transitioned JITC to a new publisher this month, BMJ, giving JITC the optimal platform to engage readers, authors and the greater field of tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. Learn more in this special editorial from JITC Editor-in-Chief Pedro J. Romero, MD.
SITC is invested in developing the next generation of leaders in tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. To further this mission, we will offer five SITC Fellowship Awards in 2020, providing a total of a half-million dollars in funding opportunities to promising young investigators. The submission period for these funding and award opportunities is Jan. 21–March 2, 2020. Thank you to our industry partners who help make these annual award opportunities possible as we work together to develop the future leaders in the field.
The Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Network (WIN) Leadership Institute is another successful leadership development program that will grow in 2020. The 2019 WIN Leadership Institute held this past August hosted more than 60 emerging female leaders in the field. Because of the strong interest and demand for this program, and the overwhelming positive response to the first program, SITC will host two such events in 2020. I’m proud of SITC commitment to the professional development of women in the field, and I thank Immediate Past President Lisa H. Butterfield, PhD, for her role as a champion for the WIN initiative.
SITC’s main goal of improving cancer care and patient outcomes is reliant upon the commitment of time and expertise from our members from around the globe. The SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines are consensus-based clinical practice guidelines, developed by panels of experts, that help inform oncologists on when and how to use immunotherapy and how to manage the associated toxicities. SITC has now published seven different guidelines, including the recently updated consensus statement on renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which appeared in JITC in December. Five additional guidelines are currently under development and scheduled for publication in 2020.
Don’t forget to register for the free SITC webinar focused on the recently published RCC manuscript. Beginning at 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 7, this webinar will include an overview of the manuscript, and will review management of immune-related adverse events. Faculty will also be available for a Q&A session.
Also, please consider attending other SITC programs quickly approaching, including the Cancer Immunotherapy Winter School (Jan. 13–17 in Houston; onsite registration is available) and the Interrogating the Tumor-Specific Surfaceome for Immune Targeting workshop (April 23–24 in San Diego). Additionally, online registration is open for our upcoming Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy™ regional education programs in Charlotte, N.C., on Jan. 23, in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 1, in Tucson, Ariz., on March 14, in Tampa, Fla., on March 21 and Seattle on March 28.
There are many other programs, initiatives, educational resources and more that SITC has planned in 2020 (here's a preview). I look forward to an exciting year ahead for our society and our members, and I hope to see you in a future SITC program in 2020.
Sincerely,
Mario Sznol, MD
SITC President
2020 SITC Fellowship and Award Opportunities
Young investigators will have the opportunity to apply for any of the following five SITC Fellowships and a separate 2020 SITC award opportunity.
2020 SITC Fellowship Awards
- SITC-Bristol-Myers Squibb Postdoctoral Cancer Immunotherapy Translational Fellowship
- SITC-Merck Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Fellowship
- SITC-AstraZeneca Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer Clinical Fellowship
- SITC-Genentech Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Fellowship
- SITC’s Holbrook Kohrt, MD, PhD, Cancer Immunotherapy Translational Memorial Fellowship (sponsored by Genentech)
SITC-NanoString Technologies Spatial Profiling Award
- This is a new research award for spatial profiling, sponsored by NanoString Technologies. Applicants will be encouraged to submit their proposals for a cancer immunotherapy project that will leverage NanoString Technologies’ GeoMx™ Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) to perform highly multiplexed spatial profiling of RNA and proteins. The most impactful proposal for cancer immunotherapy research will be selected.
- Click here for more information on the GeoMx™ Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP)
Submissions for these funding and award opportunities will be accepted Jan. 21–March 2, 2020. For eligibility information and to apply, please click here.
SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines
The SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines are a collection of consensus-based clinical practice guidelines developed by panels of experts to help oncologists determine when and how to best use immunotherapy to treat their patients as well as manage the associated toxicities that may occur.
SITC has published Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines in the following disease states (click the links below to view the current version of each manuscript):
Content from the SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines are incorporated into SITC’s Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy™ regional educational programs. SITC also publishes pocket guides for a number of the manuscripts and hosts webinars in the weeks following each publication to further discuss the treatment recommendations. Click here to learn more about the SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines initiative.
Join the SITC Family in 2020
Become a SITC member or renew your membership to grow your professional network, receive discounted registration rates to exemplary meetings, early access to housing and remain current with the field of cancer immunotherapy via SITC meeting presentations.
Join the SITC family or renew your membership today!
Attend the Interrogating the Tumor-Specific Surfaceome for Immune Targeting Workshop
April 23–24 • San Diego • View Schedule • Register Now • Registration Rates
Workshop Organizers:
- Samir M. Hanash, MD, PhD – The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Avery D. Posey Jr., PhD – University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
SITC invites you to attend the workshop, Interrogating the Tumor-Specific Surfaceome for Immune Targeting. Scheduled for April 23–24, 2020, at the Hotel Republic in San Diego, this SITC workshop will focus on the tumor cell surfaceome and the many opportunities that accompany it for the development of future immunotherapies and maximization of existing techniques. By bringing together experts on the topic from a variety of fields including medical oncology, bioinformatics, cancer biology, genetics/epigenetics, immunology, and many others, the workshop will facilitate increased discussion in this important area.
Click here to learn more about this workshop.