Dear Colleagues,
I would like to open this month’s message, my last as
SITC President, with a warm thank you to all of the attendees, supporters, organizers,
faculty, staff and other volunteers who helped make our society’s 35th
Anniversary Annual Meeting & Pre-Conference Programs (SITC 2020) a record
breaking success. More than 5,200 professionals in the cancer research
community gathered virtually from Nov. 9–14 to present and hear the latest data
in the lab and advances achieved in the clinic in immunotherapy.
While we were unable to share and celebrate the latest
advances in our field in person – more individuals attended SITC 2020 than any
other society program in our history. A fitting milestone as we marked 35 years
of SITC contributions in immunotherapy and tumor immunology.
To mark
our 35th anniversary, SITC honored more awardees than ever
before during its Annual Meeting, This year, SITC presented its Lifetime
Achievement Award, a new honor for the society, to Tara Withington, CAE. For
more than 20 years as SITC’s Executive Director, Tara has devoted all of
herself to help fulfill our society’s mission and achieve new heights. Her
vision helped SITC launch countless integral SITC initiatives including the
connectED online education platform, the SITC Sparkathon, the certificate in
cancer immunotherapy program, Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy™ regional
education programs and many others.
Congratulations to all of the SITC 2020 Award recipients.
Click
here for a complete listing of those honored, including the dozens of young
investigators who received awards this fall. And don’t forget, for all those
who registered for SITC 2020, you can access program presentations through the
end of the year via on-demand video in the SITC
2020 virtual platform.
The virtual meeting allowed SITC to expand our Annual
Meeting programming to a truly global audience. This past year, SITC’s
membership base grew to represent more than 60 countries around the world.
Increasing global access to immunotherapy is one of the society’s key strategic
priorities. One way we are seeking to achieve this goal will be through this
month’s virtual workshop, Global Access to Cancer Immunotherapy: Closing the
Gaps. Organized through the guidance and strategic vision of the SITC Global
Access and Impact Committee, which is chaired by David Kaufman, MD, PhD, this
workshop will offer leaders an opportunity to discuss and define minimal
infrastructure requirements for safe and effective IO administration across the
globe. Congruent with SITC’s mission to ensure that all immunotherapy
advancements are freely available, materials from this workshop will be
available on SITC Cancer
Immunotherapy connectED after the conclusion of the workshop. We invite you
to view the materials later in December and participate in future discussions
concerning international IO accessibility.
Have you completed your holiday shopping? As we close out
2020, I ask that you consider including the Forward Fund in your year-end
giving. Making a donation to SITC’s Forward Fund, supports the future of
the field through grants and awards for young investigators. You can make the gift in honor or in memory of
a loved one and help advance the Society’s mission. They’ll receive a card notifying them of your
generous gift and you’ll receive a gift recipient for tax purposes. You can also purchase a CheckPoints T-shirt or Mask as a
truly unique gift for someone you care about. If you missed the CheckPoints at
SITC 2020, you can watch their happy hour
performances here. Further, if you
are completing some holiday shopping on Amazon, use SITC’s Amazon Smile hyperlink,
which triggers a 0.5 percent donation from the online retailer to our society
on eligible purchases. We appreciate your kindness as we close out the calendar
year.
As we approach the final days of 2020, I’m pleased to
pass the baton of SITC leadership to fellow colleague and friend Patrick Hwu,
MD. I look forward to seeing and supporting Dr. Hwu’s tenure as SITC President
as he helps make the next two years for SITC our best yet.
Happy holidays to the entire SITC family.
Sincerely,
Mario Sznol, MD
SITC President