Blogs

Immune Monitor - June 2024

By SITC Communications posted 5 days ago

  

A Message from the President

Over the past decade, SITC played an instrumental role in establishing immunotherapy as a pillar of cancer therapy by promoting the translation of scientific innovation into treatment solutions for patients. Given the transformative clinical impact that cancer immunotherapy has already achieved, the SITC community is confident that the next decade will bring a new generation of highly innovative and effective immunotherapy agents to the patients who need them most. We recognize that there is still much work to be done.

To that end, SITC is excited to introduce our three-year strategic plan, which serves as the beacon for Society initiatives. While the strategic goals of SITC are steadfast – Education and Scientific Exchange, Professional Standards, Global Access and Impact, Policy and Advocacy, Science and Research, and Leadership Development – we have re-defined the outputs for each of these goals to address the challenges and opportunities currently facing the immunotherapy field, all while keeping the cancer patient top-of-mind.  

At our strategic retreat last year, attendees from industry, academia, government, and the patient community revisited the seminal SITC 2011 manuscript, “Defining the critical hurdles in cancer immunotherapy.” Using this manuscript as a model, the retreat attendees helped to define the biggest challenges facing IO today and identified opportunities for all of us to meet them head-on. The findings from this strategic retreat are discussed in a manuscript series entitled, “The Next Wave of Immuno-oncology: A Roadmap from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.” The first manuscript of this series, “Challenges and Opportunities in Cancer Immunotherapy: A Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Strategic Vision” recently published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC), and provides an overview of our current strategic plan. The four manuscripts to follow dive deeper into the scientific pillars of the updated strategic plan and will be published in the coming months.

At SITC, we are convinced that new, clinically relevant immuno-oncology innovations with the potential for marked clinical impact are imminent. Accordingly, we have established a goal of 100 novel IO agents over the next decade. Please join us as we leverage our strategic goals to develop a diverse portfolio of immunotherapy agents, expand into earlier lines of therapy, explore AI solutions, broaden our community tent, and bring the benefit of cancer immunotherapy to even more patients.

I look forward to working with you to generate the next wave of potent cancer immunotherapies for patients and encourage you to become a member of SITC!  

Leisha A. Emens, MD, PhD
SITC President

Program Spotlight
SITC Immuno-oncology Drug Development Summit


Building on the landmark approvals of the first immuno-oncology (IO) agents, this summit – held Sept. 30–Oct. 1 in Boston, MA – will explore the pathway to FDA approval for current IO therapeutics as a launching pad for state-of-the-art modern IO drug development. The two-day program will educate, engage, and challenge the community.

The summit will feature Ignacio Melero, MD, PhD – Clinica Universidad de Navarra Medical School and Cima, presenting his keynote on Cancer Immunotherapy: Tomorrow's Treatment Combinations Today. 
SITC 2024 Pre-Conference Industry Program
and Workshop

Beyond Checkpoint Inhibitors: New Immuno-oncology Modalities and Approaches will assemble industry and academic experts to explore promising new cancer immunotherapy modalities, from T-cell engagers to TCRs, ADCs, and next generation immune checkpoints. The faculty will also discuss recent studies surrounding patient selection and indicators of response or resistance.

The Immune Engineering Workshop: Building Bridges Between All Aspects of Engineering and Immuno-oncology is a full day workshop that will explore recent advances in engineering, artificial intelligence, and cancer immunology, and how these fields can converge to effectively address current hurdles in immuno-oncology. 
Summit on Intralesional Immunotherapy:
Moving Beyond Oncolytic Viruses
This open-door virtual educational event will present the current state and future directions of the field and highlight the current understanding of intralesional immunotherapies and their effects on the immune system and the tumor microenvironment. In situ vaccination, intralesional combination therapies, and next generation intralesional immunotherapies will also be discussed. Join organizers Joshua Brody, MD – Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tanja de Gruijl, PhD – Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Howard Kaufman, MD, FACS – Ankyra Therapeutics/ Massachusetts General Hospital and Aurélien Marabelle, MD, PhD – Gustave Roussy for this half-day program. 

Additional Programming and Events

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