
WEBINAR
Only
Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapy 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020, 10:30 AM - Tuesday, May 12, 2020, 4:20 PM EDT
The New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St Fl 40, New York
Groundbreaking advances in cancer immunotherapy have dramatically changed the landscape of patient care. Great clinical successes have been achieved in several cancers, but others, including many solid tumors, remain refractory to current treatments. While the immune characteristics of the tumor microenvironment are correlated with therapeutic response, methods to use this information to predict patient outcome are lacking.
This two-day meeting will convene experts in tumor immunology, cancer genetics and computational biology to discuss innovative methods to analyze both the tumor and the host immune system and highlight the links between tumor genotype, immune phenotype and patient response. Key themes under discussion will include tumor evolution, neoantigens, novel therapeutic targets, and mechanisms driving the emergence of resistance to current therapy.
Registration
Member
$60
Nonmember Academia, Faculty, etc.
$130
Nonmember Corporate, Other
$170
Nonmember Not for Profit
$130
Nonmember Student, Undergrad, Grad, Fellow
$90
Member Student, Post-Doc, Fellow
$30
Member
$30
Nonmember Academia, Faculty, etc.
$65
Nonmember Corporate, Other
$85
Nonmember Not for Profit
$65
Nonmember Student, Undergrad, Grad, Fellow
$45
Member Student, Post-Doc, Fellow
$15
Member
$30
Nonmember Academia, Faculty, etc.
$65
Nonmember Corporate, Other
$85
Nonmember Not for Profit
$65
Nonmember Student, Undergrad, Grad, Fellow
$45
Member Student, Post-Doc, Fellow
$15
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Monday
May 11, 2020
10:30 AM
Introduction and Welcome Remarks
Session 1
10:40 AM
Modeling Immune-Mediated Evolution
Speaker
Benjamin Greenbaum, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
11:10 AM
Computational Approaches to Characterize the Tumor-Immune Ecosystem
Speaker
Dana Pe'er, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
11:40 AM
Break
11:50 AM
T cell Therapies for Cancer: Overcoming Tumor Immune Evasion
Speaker
Catherine Bollard, MD, MB, BCh
Children's National Hospital and The George Washington University
+ Abstract
Cell therapy currently plays an important role in the treatment of patients with various cancers. Responses to cell therapeutics are regulated by multiple factors including the patient's immune system status, genetic profile, stage at diagnosis, age, and underlying disease. Outside of T cell engineering using chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and artificial T-cell receptors, T-cell therapies can be mediated by ex vivo expansion of antigen-specific T cells targeting viral and/or nonviral tumor-associated antigens. However, tumor immune evasion mechanisms such as immune suppressive cytokines, antigen loss, and upregulation of inhibitory checkpoint signals all can affect T cell activity in vivo. Strategies including infusion of checkpoint inhibitors, the adoptive transfer of T cells that express receptors that render the T cell resistant to the immune suppressive environment and target multiple tumor antigens in a single product will be discussed. These approaches are contributing to enhanced clinical responses and overall survival for some cancer populations. This session will therefore present an overview of T-cell therapeutics for cancer including receptor engineering and beyond to overcome tumor immune evasion.
12:20 PM
Soluble Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Blockade Inhibits Cell Migration, Tumor Growth, and Induces Innate Immune Response in Lapatinib-resistant HER2+ Breast Cancer
Speaker
Sofia Bruni, MSc
Instituto de Biologia y Medicina Experimental
12:35 PM
Dissecting Chemical Factors from the Gut Microbiota to Improve Cancer Immunotherapy
Speaker
Matthew E. Griffin, PhD
The Rockefeller University
12:50 PM
Break
Session 2
1:20 PM
Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Therapy: Historical Perspective, New Opportunities
Speaker
James Allison, PhD
MD Anderson Cancer Center
1:50 PM
Driving T cells into Tumors: A Role for Personal Cancer Vaccines
Speaker
Catherine Wu, MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School
+ Abstract
With the recent availability of novel immunologic agents, priority has shifted to understanding the mechanisms of and predicting responses to each treatment. While the search for immunogenic tumor antigens has been the subject of decades-long studies, multiple lines of evidence have convincingly demonstrated tumor neoantigens as an important class of immunogenic tumor antigens. Neoantigens arise from amino acid changes encoded by somatic mutations in the tumor cell and have the potential to bind to and be presented by personal HLA molecules. We can now systematically identify mutations leading to amino acid changes that can be potentially recognized immunologically through the implementation of neoantigen discovery pipelines. In recent studies, we have demonstrated that neoantigens can be safely and feasibly targeted to generate customized cancer vaccines. We have been undertaking pilot clinical trials to develop personal cancer vaccines in melanoma and glioblastoma that utilize synthetic long peptides as delivery approach for this therapy. Recent results and new directions will be discussed.
2:20 PM
Break
2:30 PM
Development of Rational Immunotherapy Combinations to Overcome the Immunosuppressive Prostate Tumor Microenvironment
Speaker
Sumit Subudhi, MD, PhD
MD Anderson Cancer Center
+ Abstract
Immune checkpoint therapies have revolutionized clinical oncology by improving survival in several malignancies; however, they have had limited efficacy in prostate cancer. This has been attributed to the immunosuppressive prostate tumor microenvironment (TME), characterized by paucity of T cells, high frequency of immunosuppressive myeloid cells, and elevated levels of immunosuppressive cytokines. Nevertheless, a subset of patients with metastatic prostate cancer respond to ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4).
We recently found that patients who experienced a prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) to ipilimumab were more likely to have within their pretreatment prostate tumors a high intratumoral CD8 density and/or express a high IFN-gamma-response gene signature, which were associated with Th1 antitumor responses. To better understand mechanisms of resistance to ipilimumab, we evaluated pre- and post-treatment tissues. Although ipilimumab increased infiltration of effector T cells within the prostate tumor microenvironment, this was countered by upregulation of the inhibitory immune checkpoints, PD-L1 and VISTA. Combining nivolumab (anti-PD-1) plus ipilimumab induced striking clinical responses in a subset of men with metastatic prostate cancer, suggesting that adaptive resistance to ipilimumab monotherapy could be overcome by concurrently targeting more than one immune checkpoint. More recently, we found that high levels of TGF-beta within the metastatic prostate bone tumor microenvironment conferred primary resistance to immune checkpoint therapies. In a preclinical model, simultaneously targeting TGF-beta and CTLA-4 promoted Th1 responses associated with improved overall survival. Taken together, our data supports the rational development of combination therapies to overcome the immunosuppressive prostate tumor microenvironment.
3:00 PM
Immunogenomics and the TME in Pediatric CNS Cancers
Speaker
Elaine Mardis, PhD
Nationwide Children's Hospital
+ Abstract
Computational deconvolution, neoantigen prediction and other immune-based characterizations of cancers have been developed and refined over the past few years. These approaches are now being applied to the study of longitudinal cancer samples as a means of evaluating the changes that occur over time and in response to therapy, therapeutic resistance, and progression. Our studies aim to apply immune characterization to pediatric CNS cancers in an effort to contextualize the tumor microenvironment, existing and evolving neoantigens, and other immune-related changes that occur in the course of progression from primary to recurrent cancers. My lecture will feature a description of the approaches we are using and their application to specific case studies, in an effort to turn patient-based observations into testable hypotheses that advance our understanding of the interaction of CNS cancers and the host immune system, and further permit us to evaluate response to novel therapeutic interventions.
3:30 PM
Day 1 Closing Remarks
3:35 PM
Day 1 Adjourns
Tuesday
May 12, 2020
10:30 AM
Welcome Back Remarks
Session 3
10:40 AM
Moving Cancer Cell Therapy Forward
Speaker
Renier Brentjens, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
11:10 AM
Immune Related Toxicities: Mechanisms and Disease Outcome
Speaker
Jeffrey A. Sosman, MD
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
11:40 AM
CUE-102 Immuno-STATs for Selective Targeting and Expansion of WT1-Specific T Cells for the Treatment of HLA-A02 and/or HLA-A24 Cancer Patients Expressing WT1
Speaker
Saso Cemerski, PhD
Cue Biopharma
11:55 AM
Keap1 Mutation Alters the Immune Landscape and Modulates Immunotherapy Responses in KRas Driven Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
Speaker
Anastasia-Maria Zavitsanou, MSc
NYU School of Medicine
12:10 PM
High-Dimensional Analysis Delineates Modulation of Myeloid and Lymphoid Compartments with STAT3 ASO and PD-L1 Combination Therapy
Speaker
Theresa Proia, PhD
AstraZeneca
12:25 PM
Virtual Poster Session
Session 4
1:20 PM
Regulation of Cancer Progression by the Tumor Microenvironment
Speaker
Mikala Egeblad, PhD
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1:50 PM
Pathology from the Molecular Scale on Up
Speaker
Garry Nolan, PhD
Stanford University
+ Abstract
High parameter single cell analysis has driven deep understanding of immune processes. Using a next-generation single-cell “mass cytometry” platform we quantify surface and cytokine or drug responsive indices of kinase target with 45 or more parameter analyses (e.g. 45 antibodies, viability, nucleic acid content, and relative cell size). Similarly, we have developed two advanced technologies termed MIBI and CODEX that enable deep phenotyping of solid tissue in both fresh frozen and FFPE formats (50 –100 markers). Collectively, the systems allows for subcellular analysis from the 70nm resolution scale to whole tissue in 3D.I will present evidence of deep internal order in immune functionality demonstrating that differentiation and immune activities have evolved with a definable “shape”. Further, specific cellular neighborhoods of immune cells are now definable with unique abilities to affect cellular phenotypes—and these neighborhoods alter in various cancer disease states. In addition to cancer, these shapes and neighborhoods are altered during immune action and “imprinted” during, and after, pathogen attack, traumatic injury, or auto-immune disease. Hierarchies of functionally defined trans-cellular modules are observed that can be used for mechanistic and clinical insights in cancer and immune therapies.
2:20 PM
Differential Epigenetic Regulation of Immune Microenvironment in Lymphoid versus Myeloid Rich Tumors
Speaker
Sangeeta Goswami, MD, PhD
MD Anderson Cancer Center
2:50 PM
Break
3:00 PM
Impact of Tumor-resident DC on Anti-tumor Immunity
Speaker
Stefani Spranger, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3:30 PM
Next Generation CAR T Cells
Speaker
Crystal Mackall, MD
Stanford University
4:15 PM
Closing Remarks
4:20 PM