Cancer immunotherapy, in particular checkpoint inhibition targeting CTLA-4 and/or PD-(L)1 has revolutionized treatment and outcomes for many late-stage cancer patients. While checkpoint inhibitors are used in earlier and earlier stages and celebrate unparalleled response rates as neoadjuvants, some patients are intrinsically refractory to these treatments due to insufficient immune cell infiltration or T cell responses within the tumor. The major question remains, how to treat these patients.

This conference will assemble top experts in the field to address the unmet clinical needs, and discuss how immunotherapy can reach patient populations that currently do not benefit.  The program will explore how to overcome barriers to immune cell entry into tumors, as well as insufficient activation of anti-tumor immune responses. In addition, diverse immune cell therapies will be covered, from T-cell based mainstays like TILs, gene-modified T cells, and CAR-T cells, to emerging modalities deploying innate immune cells like dendritic and NK cells.  A major theme will focus on what we can learn from clinical failures with regards to improving the design immunotherapies, as well as how to strategically combine them with cellular therapies for optimal outcomes. This bedside to bench perspective will provide critical insight to drive scientific and clinical advances beyond current limitations.

This conference will be held jointly with the Keystone Symposium on Immune Cell Therapies: Advances in Cancer and Autoimmune Disease to enable cross-disciplinary insights and collaborations towards better outcomes for all cancer patients.