Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy

Robert C. Rees, Director and Professor of Tumour Biology, The John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

1. Adaptive T-cell immunity and tumor antigen recognition ; 2. Impact of aging and body mass on cancer immunotherapy outcomes ; 3. The potential of natural killer cells in cancer immunotherapy ; 4. The tumour microenvironment: the role of tumour associated macrophages in cancer progression and responses to therapy ; 5. "Hard" and "soft" loss of MHC class I expression in cancer cells ; 6. Modulation of the adaptive immune system through chronic inflammation and T-regulatory responses ; 7. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells: immune suppressive cells that facilitate tumor progression and promote and deter cancer-associated inflammation. ; 8. Triggering death receptors as a means of inducing tumoricidal activity ; 9. Identification of tumor antigens for clinical evaluation ; 10. Viral antigens as targets for prophylactic and therapeutic intervention in cancer ; 11. HER-2/neu as a target for vaccine and antibody directed therapies ; 12. Pre-clinical evaluation of immunotherapy: the case for prostate cancer and the tramp model ; 13. Tumor-associated antigens characterized in a conceptual framework of biology, microenvironment, and therapy ; 14. Predictive biomarkers to better select patients for cancer immunotherapy ; 15. Viral platforms for expression of tumour antigens in cancer immunotherapy ; 16. Translating research into clinical practice: lessons from the immunology and immunotherapy of haemopoietic malignancies ; 17. DNA vaccines ; 18. Programming the immune system through childhood infections: MUC1 Tumor Associated Antigen (TAA) as a Disease Associated Antigen (DAA) ; 19. Vaccination against myeloid leukaemias using newly defined antigens ; 20. Immune-checkpoint blockade in cancer immunotherapy ; 21. Multi-peptide cancer vaccines for clinical application ; 22. Adoptive T-cell therapy using TILs for the treatment of metastatic melanoma ; 23. Chimeric antigen receptor gene therapy in cancer ; 24. The vaccinal effect of monoclonal antibodies in cancer therapy ; 25. Antibody therapies: defining appropriate cell surface epitopes for targeting tumours ; 26. Adoptive lymphocyte (stem cell) therapy in cancer ; 27. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT): Tumor Cell Plasticity Challenges Immunotherapy ; 28. Immune escape and aging of the immune system compromises the immune response to tumor antigens