Now Available Online - The July Issue of the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer!

• Primer on tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy
  
• Myeloid derived suppressor cells -- a new therapeutic target in the treatment of cancer
  
• Mining the mutanome: developing highly personalized immunotherapies based on mutational analysis of tumors
  

July Issue of JITC - Now Available Online!

The latest issue of the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) is now available online. The issue includes a summary of the SITC 2012 Primer on Tumor Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy™, data from a recent study on Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSC) and a pre-meeting manuscript for the SITC 2013 Workshop on Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy. We invite you to explore the entire issue at: www.immunotherapyofcancer.org.

Highly Accessed Articles -

SITC is pleased to announce that two papers recently published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer have achieved 'highly accessed' status. The first paper, "Regulation of immunotherapeutic products for cancer and FDA’s role in product development and clinical evaluation," by Vatsan et. al, was published in the May issue of JITC and has been accessed more than 2,400 times. The second article, "Immune monitoring using the predictive power of immune profiles," by Gustafson et. al, was published in the June issue and has been accessed more than 1,100 times. SITC would like to congratulate the authors of these papers.

Primer on tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy

The recent resurgence in understanding of tumor immunobiology has lead to the successful development of new immune-based treatment options to improve cancer outcomes. SITC’s Primer on Tumor Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy™ held in conjunction with the Society’s 2012 Annual Meeting, provided an educational foundation for understanding these core immunology principles as they relate to basic and clinical research in immunotherapy of cancer. SITC delivered this program to students, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians from academia and industry as well as physicians and scientists at more senior levels who wanted to solidify their understanding of tumor immunology and immunotherapy.

This manuscript summarizes the 2012 SITC Primer, reviewing past, present, and emerging immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of cancer—including targeting innate versus adaptive immune components; targeting and/or utilizing dendritic cells and T cells; the role of the tumor microenvironment; and immune checkpoint blockade.

Click here to read the full summary in JITC.

This year's SITC Primer on Tumor Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy™ will be held on November 7, 2013. "The SITC 2013 Primer will provide cutting-edge scientific and clinical data to educate attendees about the rationale and outcomes of using novel immunotherapy agents,” said Primer organizer Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD at MD Anderson Cancer Center. For more information, on the SITC 2013 Primer, visit www.sitcancer.org/2013/primer.

Myeloid derived suppressor cells -- a new therapeutic target in the treatment of cancer

Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSC) are a heterogeneous population of immature myeloid cells that are increased in states of cancer, inflammation and infection. In malignant states, MDSC are induced by tumor secreted growth factors. MDSC play an important part in suppression of host immune responses through several mechanisms such as production of arginase 1, release of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide and secretion of immune-suppressive cytokines. This leads to a permissive immune environment necessary for the growth of malignant cells. MDSC may also contribute to angiogenesis and tumor invasion. This review focuses on currently available strategies to inhibit MDSC in the treatment of cancer.

"Multiple groups have shown that tumor vaccines and other immune therapies work significantly better in murine tumor models in which MDSC have been depleted," said Robert Wesolowski, MD, the corresponding author of the paper. "MDSC inhibitors may therefore offer us another potential tool to create more effective immune based treatment regimens. Based on pre-clinical and early clinical studies, circulating MDSC could also become biomarkers that can provide prognostic information and might potentially predict response to immune based therapies."

Click here to read the full article in JITC.

Mining the mutanome: developing highly personalized immunotherapies based on mutational analysis of tumors

T cells can mediate remarkable tumor regressions including complete cure in patients with metastatic cancer. Genetic alterations in an individual’s cancer cells (the mutanome) encode unique peptides (m-peptides) that can be targets for T cells. The recent advances in next-generation sequencing and computation prediction allows, for the first time, the rapid and affordable identification of m-peptides in individual patients. Despite excitement about the extended spectrum of potential targets in personalized immunotherapy, there is no experience or consensus on the path to their successful clinical application. Major questions remain, such as whether clinical responses to cytokine therapy, T cell transfer, and checkpoint blockade are primarily mediated by m-peptide-specific reactivity, whether m-peptides can be effectively used as vaccines, and which m-peptides are most potently recognized. These and other
technological, immunological and translational questions will be explored at the SITC 2013 Workshop on Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy scheduled to take place on November 7, 2013 prior to the SITC 28th Annual Meeting, in National Harbor, MD, near Washington, DC.

"Next-generation sequencing is well on its way towards becoming a standard tool in cancer medicine, and offers the unprecedented promise of identifying patient-specific immunological targets in real-time," said Willem W. Overwijk, PhD, at MD Anderson Cancer Center. "However, this approach is in its infancy and many theoretical, practical, immunological and medical questions remain. SITC, as a leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy, is organizing this workshop to get both experts and new participants in the field together to share data, ideas, best practices and to find each other for collaborations."

Click here to read the full article in JITC.

For more information on the SITC 2013 Workshop on Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy, set to take place on November 7, 2013, visit www.sitcancer.org/2013/workshop.

Submit Your Research to JITC!

Officially launched in May, JITC is an online, peer-reviewed, open-access journal encompassing all aspects of tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy, from basic research to clinical application. SITC is currently accepting submissions to JITC and offers Society members waived article processing charges through 2013!

Now accepting submissions in:

• Basic Tumor Immunology: including tumor antigens, innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune mechanisms, immune regulation, immune response, cancer and inflammation, preclinical models, chemotherapy and radiotherapy interactions with the anti-tumor immune response, and oncolytic viruses.
  

• Clinical/Translational Cancer Immunotherapy: including first in man clinical trials, phase II/III clinical studies, immune monitoring investigations, tumor microenvironment, host genetics and clinical outcome, and updates on clinical trials.
  

• Immunotherapy Biomarkers: including predictive/prognostic biomarker studies, gene expression studies in cancer immunotherapy, serological immune biomarkers, multiparameter flow cytometry-defined immune biomarkers, and high content immunohistological studies.
  

• Reviews/Editorials: including discussion on hot topics and innovative concepts.
  

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