«That's when Big Pharma started sniffing around and really got interested in immunotherapy,» says Jeffrey Schlom, chief of the National Cancer Institute's
Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology.
«What he showed us is turning the immune system on isn't enough; the crucial step is to make sure it doesn't turn itself off,» says Antoni Ribas,
director of the tumor immunology program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Antoni Ribas is the director
of the Tumor Immunology Program at the University of California, Los Angeles Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG.
He is also a member and
co-leader of the Tumor Immunology Focus Panel for the NCI - designated Knight Cancer Institute and adjunct faculty member, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health and Science University.
The Cancer Research Institute, the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy, the European
Academy of Tumor Immunology, and the American Association for Cancer Research will join forces to sponsor the first International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel in New York, Sept..
«The approval of ipilimumab to treat advanced metastatic melanoma is a game changer not only for the thousands of people fighting this disease, but also for the entire field of oncology,» says Jill O'Donnell - Tormey, Ph.D., executive director of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization that since 1953 has worked to advance the
science of tumor immunology.
With standard clinical trials, the criteria used to confirm benefit do not apply to vaccines, points out Jeffrey Schlom, chief of the
Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Kunle Odunsi is the deputy director of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where he also serves as the chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, the executive director of the Center for Immunotherapy, and the
co-Leader of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy research program.
Using expertise in genomics and cell biology, Dr. Pillai is looking forward to expanding his research in the
field of Tumor Immunology, with focus on Breast Cancer.
The reasons are under investigation, but the 408 patients in the study had the most advanced prostate cancer possible, «exactly the patient population for which [one] would not use a vaccine,» remarks Jeffrey Schlom, chief of the Laboratory
of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the National Cancer Institute.