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NR4A transcription factors control T cell dysfunction programs

T cell dysfunction – in the form of exhaustion, anergy, or tolerance – is known to limit the effector functions of T cells, but the molecular mechanisms that induce dysfunctional programs are not fully understood. Two recent studies, published back...

Order of administration of combination cytokine therapies can decouple toxicity from efficacy in syngeneic mouse tumor models

In an attempt to use scheduling to decouple therapeutic efficacy from toxicity, Rothschilds et al. treated tumor-bearing mice with a tumor-targeting antibody on day 0, IFNα on day 1, and an extended h...

SnapShot: Cancer Immunotherapy with Oncolytic Viruses

Gujar et al. briefly review and graphically illustrate the oncolytic virus approach to cancer immunotherapy, describing its mechanisms of action (oncolysis, transgene expression, tumor vasculature col...

Peripheral T cell cytotoxicity predicts T cell function in the tumor microenvironment

Iwahori et al. analyzed tumors, normal lung tissue, and peripheral blood from patients with early-stage NSCLC for T cell markers, cytokine production, and cytotoxic capability (using a bispecific T-ce...

Phase I/II trial testing safety and immunogenicity of the multipeptide IMA950/poly-ICLC vaccine in newly diagnosed adult malignant astrocytoma patients

Migliorini and Dutoit et al. immunized 19 glioma patients with 9 HLA-A2 epitope-length peptides (identified from glioblastoma tumor samples using mass spectrometry and shown to be overexpressed in gli...

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Previous Digests

TAMs may be friends, not foes, in early-stage tumor T cell response

March 6, 2019

Knowing that immunotherapy that works in mice often fails in patients with solid tumors, and that mouse models mostly utilize tumor cell lines from advanced tumors, Singhal et al. decided to bypass murine studies entirely and instead analyzed the...

Boosting immunity with the microbiome

February 27, 2019

In recent years, the microbiome has gained increased attention for its effects on the immune system, and it is well known to influence the CD4+ T cell compartment; however, little is known of its effect on CD8+ T cells...

Found: tumor-reactive regulatory T cells

February 20, 2019

Elevated levels of CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are often found in human tumors and are associated with poor prognosis. However, the antigen specificity of intratumoral Tregs is not well understood. In a paper recently published in Science Immunology...

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About ACIR

ACIR's mission is to fast-track Cancer Immunotherapy Research by helping YOU to stay on top of the new literature in this fast-moving and multifaceted field, fostering YOUR creativity and productivity in bringing us ever closer to curing this deadly disease.

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The work of ACIR and the Fritsch Foundation is so beautifully targeted on something that has the potential of being truly useful even in the earliest stages. What a great idea!

— John Petricciani, MD

President of the International Alliance for Biological Standardization (IABS); Former Director of the Center for Biologics at FDA and former Chief Medical Officer of the Biologicals Unit at WHO

Our understanding of the interaction between the immune system and cancer cells, and also the ways to exploit this interaction clinically, is growing faster than ever before. At present, there is no reliable single source of information that can help clinicians and researchers in this field stay up-to-date, and by filling this gap, the Fritsch Foundation and ACIR.org initiative will facilitate the development of effective cancer immunotherapies for an increasing number of patient groups.

— Ton Schumacher, PhD

Deputy Director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute; Professor of Immunotechnology at Leiden University, The Netherlands; Chief Scientific Officer of Kite Pharma EU; SU2C-CRI Immunotherapy Dream Team member

Cancer Immunotherapy is providing patients with novel and durable treatments and the number of available therapies keeps growing. The mission of the Fritsch Foundation and its ACIR.org website—to accelerate the pace by which the field develops through mapping out the research and clinical landscapes and keeping track of key advances in the field—is an initiative that has my total support!!

— Robert D. Schreiber, PhD

Alumni Endowed Professor of Pathology and Immunology and Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine, MO; Director of the Washington University Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs; Coleader of the Tumor Immunology Program of Washington University's Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center; Associate Director of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Cancer Research Institute

I fully support the important new initiative of the Fritsch Foundation. The field of cancer immunotherapy grows at an exciting pace. Staying on top of foundational discoveries in the field, which will be conveniently processed on ACIR.org, is key for coming up with important new hypotheses about immunotherapeutic cancer treatment strategies.

— Glenn Dranoff, MD, PhD

Global Head of Immuno-Oncology, Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research

I fully endorse the mission of the Fritsch Foundation and ACIR.org to provide a weekly synopsis of the scientific literature that bears on the field of cancer immunotherapy. The value and impact of this approach has been clearly demonstrated by a program I have been involved in as a member of the scientific advisory board of the Prize4Life Foundation, which is dedicated to curing the neurodegenerative disease ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gherig’s disease). ALS Forum, a joint effort between Prize4Life and the Alzheimer’s Research Forum provides ALS research summaries and well as links to ALS review articles as well as other content related to clinical trials. This program is widely used by the ALS research community to keep up to date with the rapidly moving scientific literature on ALS.

— Tom Maniatis, PhD

Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in New York, and Director of the University wide Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative (CPMI)

The Fritsch Foundation and ACIR.org have identified a great way to meet the critical need of researchers and clinicians everywhere to stay up to date with the literature in the fast moving and life-saving field of cancer immunotherapy. This will be a fine living tribute to your son that has the potential to help many future cancer victims!

— James S. Economou, MD, PhD

Beaumont Professor of Surgery, Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, and Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

At a time when immunotherapy is being used for the treatment of increasing numbers of patients with cancer, there is a critical need to provide reliable information to patients, physicians and researchers. Key limitations to get to the reliable sources of information are the large amount of data that is being generated and published, the multiple clinical trials available and the differences in the ability of patients to access these therapies. Given these limitations, I welcome the efforts by The Fritsch Foundation and ACIR.org to make sense out of all this data and provide a reliable and timely source of information for the whole community of patients and researchers. They have full time scientists reviewing the data and pointing to the most important advances in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

— Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC); Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) Center at UCLA; Chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG

The field of cancer immunotherapy has exploded in recent years, drawing on the creativity and experience of scientists, clinicians, and patient advocates from many different backgrounds. ACIR does an incredible job of helping bring all of these groups together toward a common goal of eliminating cancer by disseminating important research findings to the community at large.

— James Allison, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Immunology; Executive Director, Immunotherapy Platform; Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; and Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair-Immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

As a researcher bridging the science and clinical translation of the exciting discoveries of cancer immunotherapy, I applaud the efforts of ACIR.org to help me, my post-docs and students, and my colleagues keep up to date on all the key innovations driving this field. New knowledge continually refines our current thinking and ACIR.org keeps that new knowledge fresh and at our fingertips.

— Catherine Wu, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School; Institute Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

I am pleased to voice my support for the mission of ACIR.org to keep cancer immunotherapy researchers up to date with the current advancements in the field. Given the magnitude of new information emerging from this field, I particularly appreciate their efforts to both identify and highlight the key advancements each week and to distill the new information to key take-away points that can be easily and quickly grasped.

— Nir Hacohen, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Director, MGH Center for Cancer Immunology; Institute Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT