Letter From the Editor- February

Dear JITC Readers,

Welcome to the second JITC digest of 2021. The papers highlighted in this month’s spotlight exciting new frontiers in the immunotherapy field—underscoring the advancements made in new therapies beyond checkpoint inhibitors as well as the ever-evolving understanding of how the “classical” treatments exert anti-tumor effects.

 

The journal added new sections devoted to adoptive cell therapies and oncolytic viruses as recently as last year, and these important areas continue to advance.

 

This month, a paper by Jitendra Kumar et al reveals a strategy to overcome a longstanding challenge in adoptive cell therapies for solid tumors, namely, the immunosuppressive milieu in the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, Giulia Marelli and colleagues demonstrate a rational approach to enhancing the efficacy of oncolytic virus therapy with improved systemic distribution and enforced cytokine production for the vector.

 

The central role of the innate immune system in the anti-tumor effects of checkpoint inhibition are increasingly coming to prominence. Highlighting this rapidly evolving avenue of inquiry, Anastasia Prokopi et al provide evidence that dendritic cells are essential for tumor control in melanoma.

 

Complementing the original research in this month’s digest is an outstanding review by Xiuting Liu, Graham D Hogg, and David G DeNardo, which clearly outlines the direct and indirect effects of checkpoint inhibition on non-lymphoid cells. For additional nuanced and sophisticated explorations of the evolving landscape of tumor immune suppression and evasion, be sure to revisit the Immune Checkpoints Beyond PD-1 series.

 

Finally, it would be impossible for JITC to maintain its status as the preeminent immuno-oncology journal without the tireless efforts of anonymous peer reviewers, who ensure that every paper published in the journal is of the highest quality. In 2020, more than 1,400 unique reviewers evaluated papers for the journal, and the editorial board wishes to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you for their dedication and perseverance. If you are interested in applying to become a reviewer, please visit the volunteer portal to apply.

 

Best regards,

Pedro J. Romero, MD
Editor-in-Chief, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

To view the entire February 2021 JITC Digest, please click here. 

JITC Letter from the Editor - December 2019

Dear JITC Readers,

This is the final JITC digest of 2019, and we are ending the year on a historic note with December’s issue containing the most-ever papers published in a single month since the journal’s inception! It has been an exciting year for JITC, and we look forward to what the future holds as the immunotherapy field continues to expand and evolve.

The highlighted papers in this month’s JITC digest truly exemplify some of the most exciting areas of research in our field, spanning preclinical models to human trials and adding new insight into the contribution of the tumor microenvironment to disease progression and immunotherapy resistance as well as the development of novel immunotherapeutic agents.

Be sure to read the Editor Picks below about microenvironment-targeting therapeutics for the reprogramming of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and for the selective depletion of tumor-associated macrophages, gene-edited “off-the-shelf” CAR T cells for the treatment of glioblastoma, preclinical validation for a new checkpoint inhibitor target in ovarian cancer, newly described mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance in melanoma, a deeper understanding of the two types of secondary bone metastases in prostate cancer, and a phase 2 trial describing dendritic cell vaccines for prostate cancer that that induce clinically meaningful immune responses.

With best regards,

Pedro J. Romero, MD
Editor-in-Chief, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

To view the entire December 2019 JITC Digest, please click here. 

The METIOR Incubator and Educating the Next Generation of Immuno-Oncology Experts

by Saman Maleki, PhD

In August 2017, SITC brought together a group of 29 young researchers and physicians, from across the world, that were involved in various aspects of immunotherapy research to compete in a bold new program called “Sparkathon.” These people were divided into three teams and tasked to work together to develop a solution tackling the most pressing hurdles facing the fast-growing field of cancer immunotherapy. Each team was assigned a mentor with extensive science and business background and teams formulated their solutions to a business deck and pitched it to a group of SITC leaders, academics, and industry experts.

One of the teams set to address the educational challenge facing early-career researchers ­– from any background/sector – who want to enter the field of Immuno-Oncology. This novel educational program is named Mentoring for Early Translational Immuno-Oncology Researchers (METIOR) incubator. It brings together researchers from various sectors and backgrounds and educates them about Immuno-Oncology while developing a team-based multi-institutional project under the mentorship of immunotherapy experts from academia and industry. The METIOR incubator received $75,000 in seed funding from SITC to assist the establishment of their unique educational program. 

METIOR incubator selected ten participants from a pool of highly qualified applicants with various backgrounds in cancer research and assigned them into two teams: 1) team Checkpoints and 2) team CAR T-cell. Each team is currently working on two different projects that is directly linked to cancer immunotherapy. Participants met each other and their mentors at the first METIOR retreat at The University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) in March 2018. After two intense days of mentored brainstorming and project development, each team received $20,000 in seed money to work on their respective projects.

Team checkpoint seeks to identify biomarkers that are associated with the activity of endogenous retroviruses with double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) in ovarian cancer that might sensitize these tumors to checkpoint inhibitors.

Team CAR T-cell aims to build a centralized information platform (Virtual Immune-oncology Tissue Consortium, VITC) comprising of reference to clinical and pre-clinical samples with a focus on immunotherapy. This platform will be the first of its kind to efficiently consolidate immunotherapy resources across institutions into a searchable, interactive scientific network accessible to all researchers worldwide.

Teams have monthly teleconference meeting with their mentors and will meet again, in person, with their mentors in early September in London, Ontario for the second METIOR Incubator retreat. They will work on consolidating their ideas and preliminary results to shape a joint grant application with the goal of seeking major peer-reviewed funding. The last METIOR Incubator retreat would be at the SITC 33rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in November, where each team will present their progresses during the noon hour on Friday (TimIOs) and Saturday (METIOR). For a complete look at the Annual Meet schedule, click here.

Link to METIOR incubator: http://www.sitcancer.org/education/sparkathon/2017-cohort/projects/metior

Link to the Checkpoints team: http://www.sitcancer.org/education/sparkathon/2017-cohort/projects/metior/checkpoints

Link to the CAR T-cell team: http://www.sitcancer.org/education/sparkathon/2017-cohort/projects/metior/car-t

Acknowledgment:

Author wished to thank Ms. Alexandra Cadena and Dr. Sebastiano Battaglia for their proofreading of this article.

Giving Cancer the RadScopal™ Treatment

by Alexandra Cadena

In the past decade, many advances in the field of radio-immunotherapy have taken shape. There is undeniable therapeutic synergy between radiation (XRT) and immunotherapy. 

At the Welsh lab at MD AndersonCancer Center, we strive to find new approaches and effective combinations of radiation with checkpoint inhibitors. In our quest, we found ourselves re-thinking not only what the best combination is, but also what is the safest, least toxic, and most translational treatment regimen.

SITC 2017 Scientific Highlights - Nov. 11

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) is pleased to present highlights from the Saturday programs (Nov. 11, 2017) of the 32nd Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Md. (Scroll to the bottom of this blog post to view the Glossary).

Dendritic cell acquisition of MHC I controls CD8+ T cell priming

Brandon MacNabb, BS (University of Chicago) presented data supporting the concept of MHC I antigen presentation by Batf3-lineage DCs as a critical component of CD8+-mediated anti-tumor response. Researchers initially generated H2-KbAB (MHC I+) and Kb-/-(MHC I-) C1498.SIY acute myeloid leukemia cell lines and subsequently engrafted C57BL/6 mice to determine the contribution of tumor cell MHC I presentation in CD8+ T cell priming. Initial assessment revealed reduced tumor growth in C1498.SIY KbAB mice compared to C1498.SIY Kb-/- mice. CD8+ T cell proliferation was also increased in KbAB mice compared to Kb-/- mice (p < 0.05). The observed C1498.SIY KbAB-dependent CD8+ proliferation was abolished in Batf3-/- C57BL/6 mice (p < 0.01). IFN-ϒ secretion was also decreased in Batf3-/- KbAB mice, suggesting that Batf3 initiates CD8+ priming. Transfer of autologous T cells from KbAB tumor-bearing mice offered complete protection from tumor growth in tumor-free mice. Conversely, autologous T cells from Kb-/- mice offered no such protection. Interestingly, DCs isolated from the TME and the tumor-draining lymph node in tumor-positive mice had increased KbAB MHC I expression (p < 0.001), suggesting DC acquisition of tumor-derived MHC I. Ex vivo experiments confirmed that migratory KbAB DCs are capable of CD8+ priming. These data reveal the importance of Batf3-lineage DCs and tumor-derived MHC I presentation in CD8+ T cell activation of anti-tumor response, providing insight into potential development of DC-oriented therapies.