Letter From the Editor - December

Hello JITC Readers,

Welcome to the final JITC digest of 2021. This past year has not been without its challenges, but the immunotherapy field has also seen tremendous advancement. Checkpoint inhibitors are moving into the standard of care for an ever increasing number of tumor types as well as in earlier stages of disease and the number of approved CAR T cell products has more than doubled in the past year alone.
 

The journal has also progressed by leaps and bounds this year, and the more than three-point bump in JITC’s impact factor in 2021 reflects the high quality of research found in every issue. As the journal continues to grow and excel, I am excited to announce that James L. Gulley MD, PhD, FACP, has been appointed to the role of Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Be sure to read this month’s special feature for a biography of JITC’s new second-in-command and the extensive experience he brings to the role.

For the final digest of the year, we are highlighting four exemplary original research articles that offer innovative approaches for modulation of the tumor microenvironment.

Intratumoral immunotherapy is the focus of Yu-Chao Zhu and colleagues and Maite Alvarez et al. The first group demonstrate feasibility of intratumoral administration of an attenuated strain of the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii leading to tumor rejection and immune memory. The second manuscript shows synergistic activity of a poly I:C derivative and a STING agonist even when injected into separate lesions.

New mechanistic insight into mechanisms of immune evasion are also offered. Inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase is identified as a strategy to enhance efficacy of anti-PD-1 against the immunologically cold tumor pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma by Allison A. Fitzgerald et al. A new soluble immune checkpoint, chitinase 3-like-1, is revealed as an inhibitor of natural killer (NK) cell antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity by Abbass Darwich and colleagues.

With well-wishes for the holidays and optimism for what 2022 will bring.

 

Best regards,

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

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