Day 1 ESMO 2021 Roundup: Investigational Immunotherapies Show Promise in Early Cancer Trials
Day 1 of the 2021 ESMO Annual Meeting was replete with several exciting presentations and expert viewpoints on the topic of investigational immunotherapies. Here is a summary of a few interesting talks.
Although checkpoint inhibitor therapies have been successful in some types of cancer, they require tumors to express high levels of checkpoint proteins and a preexisting T-cell response that can be reactivated to have significant clinical activity.
Unfortunately, many solid tumors do not meet these requirements. In order to induce a T-cell response against solid tumors, a team at The University of Chicago Medical Centre, funded by Gritstone bio, developed a personalized vaccine against tumor neoantigens, the proteins recognized by the immune system developed only in tumors.
Although checkpoint inhibitor therapies have been successful in some types of cancer, they require tumors to express high levels of checkpoint proteins and a preexisting T-cell response that can be reactivated to have significant clinical activity.
Unfortunately, many solid tumors do not meet these requirements. In order to induce a T-cell response against solid tumors, a team at The University of Chicago Medical Centre, funded by Gritstone bio, developed a personalized vaccine against tumor neoantigens, the proteins recognized by the immune system developed only in tumors.