iSBTc 25th Annual Meeting

Immediately following the conclusion of the 25th Annual Meeting, attendees enjoyed three lectures and an interactive panel discussion on recent studies on anti-CTLA-4 in cancer treatment, moderated by SITC/iSBTc member James P. Allison, PhD (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center). Dr. Allison pioneered the development CTLA-4 blockade one-and-a-half decades ago and presented the model at our 1996 Annual Meeting (also in Washington, D.C.), shortly after being reported for the first time in Science.

Presentations were made by the following scientists, who provided both an industry and academic perspective on CTLA-4 blockade as a cancer therapeutic.

• Kevin N. Heller, MD (Bristol-Myers Squibb) provided an update on phase II and phase III clinical trials with implications for future research.
• Ignacio Melero, MD, PhD (University of Navarra, Spain) discussed combination opportunities in immunotherapy with immunostimulatory monoclonal antibodies.
• Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD discussed identification of immunologic markers in a pre-surgical clinical trial with anti-CTLA-4 monotherapy; she also provided an overview of combination studies with anti-CTLA-4.