To facilitate development of innovative immunotherapy approaches, especially for treatment concepts exploiting the potential benefits of personalized therapy, there is a need to develop and validate tools to identify patients who can benefit from immunotherapy. Despite substantial effort, the authors do not yet know which parameters of antitumor immunity to measure and which assays are optimal for those measurements. Although specific immune parameters and assays are not yet validated, the authors recommend following standardized (accurate, precise, and reproducible) protocols and use of functional assays for the primary immunologic readouts of a trial; consideration of central laboratories for immune monitoring of large, multi-institutional trials; and standardized testing of several phenotypic and functional potential potency assays specific to any cellular product.Authors: Lisa H. Butterfield, A. Karloina Palucka, Cedrik M. Britten, Madhav V. Dhodapkar, Leif Håkansson, Sylvia Janetzki, Yutaka Kawakami, Thomas-Oliver Kleen, Peter P. Lee, Cristina Maccalli, Holden T. Maecker, Vernon C. Maino, Michele Maio, Anatoli Malyguine, Giuseppe Masucci, Graham Pawelec, Douglas M. Potter, Licia Rivoltini, Lupe G. Salazar, Dolores J. Schendel, Craig L. Slingluff Jr, Wenru Song, David F. Stroncek, Hideaki Tahara, Magdalena Thurin, Giorgio Trinchieri, Sjoerd H. van Der Burg, Theresa L. Whiteside, Jon M. Wigginton, Francesco Marincola, Samir Khleif, Bernard A. Fox and Mary L. DisisPublished as a special report in Clinical Cancer Research (2011) 17:10.#SITCPublication