iSBTc 25th Annual Meeting

October 2 - 4, 2010
Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C.

Program Purpose 

The iSBTc Annual Meeting allows for the exchange of the most cutting edge preclinical and clinical data on the use of biological therapies in cancer. Sessions on clinical trial design, navigating the regulatory issues, as well as the most current concepts on biologic and immunotherapeutic approaches will occur, allowing investigators to share and build on their data.

iSBTc is ideally positioned to meet these identified needs and bridge the practice gap of our learners. iSBTc’s strength lies in its history of organizing successful Annual Meetings which assemble key constituents and produce scientifically significant discussions regarding relevant issues in biological therapy for the treatment of cancer. By addressing and fulfilling these needs, iSBTc is enabling productive, effective, and efficient research and therapy with biologic and immunologic agents. Ultimately this scientific exchange and collaborative environment will lead to better cancer patient outcomes.

As such, the iSBTc Annual Meeting program format and content created through identified needs/practice gaps identified will encourage and allow for:

• Exchange between basic and clinical researchers, thus improving the caliber of the science in both.
• Discussion on potential hurdles in biologic therapy from the regulatory and trial design perspective.
• Fostering mentoring of junior investigators on the state of research in today's environment and potential funding opportunities.
• Discussion of new and novel therapies based on the research presented.
• Interactions with biotechnology to allow access to new and novel agents for clinical development.

Intended Audience
Basic and clinical investigators involved in cancer research comprising members of academic, pharmaceutical, and regulatory agencies including basic scientists, clinicians, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, as well as allied health professionals.

Program Goals
To facilitate enhancing physician/researcher competence and performance in their daily activities, the iSBTc Annual Meeting provides a forum to:

• Promote scientific exchange of most recent advances and data in the biological treatment of cancer, as well as advances in basic cancer biology with relevance for anti-tumor immunity.
• Promote the identification of new applications incorporating these advances and explore their potential for impact on treatment outcomes and personalized therapy.
• Discuss the latest clinical developments regarding application of biologic approaches and establish dialogue between academia, government and industry regarding implications as well as future directions.
• Educate and provide perspective to the audience on the broad range of scientific developments in cancer and biological approaches to therapy.
• Discuss therapeutic approaches to cancer immunotherapy including: vaccination strategies including combinations of vaccines and molecularly targeted therapies, adoptive T cell transfer, dendritic cells, innate/adaptive immune interplay, countering negative regulation and immune cell trafficking to tumor microenvironment.
• Integrate novel clinical trial designs, new endpoints and new strategies for response assessment into clinical trials evaluating biologic therapy of cancer.
• Explore the role of biologic therapy in human cancers, in particular melanoma, colorectal, prostate and breast cancers, and hematologic malignancies.

Expected Learner Outcomes
Upon completion of this meeting, participants will be able to:

• Summarize the most recent advances in cancer biology, how they intersect with the immune system, and how these considerations are relevant for the biologic therapy of cancer.
• Establish how to solidify collaborations among the various members of academia, industry and clinical practices to initiate clinical evaluation of these advances in more efficient trials.

The iSBTc 25th Annual Meeting is a non-accredited continuing medical education event. No credits are offered for physician participation in this educational program.