Luis I. Ruffolo, MD, of the University of Rochester, discusses preclinical studies showing that semaphorin 4D blockade may sensitize pancreatic tumors to chemoimmunotherapy combinations (Abstract 26).
Martin McCarter, MD, of the University of Colorado Denver, discusses the recent strides in surgical oncology, how the role of surgery has changed, and what lies ahead for this staple of cancer therapy.
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, summarizes a session she co-chaired on utilizing the immune system in neoadjuvant trials to treat melanoma, breast, and lung cancers.
Kevin Tyan, of Kinnos, and currently a medical school student at Harvard University, discusses his study findings, which showed that patients with melanoma who are treated with immunotherapy had a significantly lower risk of developing colitis if they also took vitamin D ( Abstract 89).
Jarrett Failing, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses his study data, which show some agreement between the expression of human leukocyte antigens in primary non–small cell lung cancer with brain metastasis. His findings may have some bearing on resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (Abstract 43).
Christopher B. Cole, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses findings from a phase I study of intraperitoneal monocytes activated by interferons alpha and gamma in patients with ovarian cancer. Two of 11 patients had a partial response and 5 of 11 had stable disease; ongoing efforts are exploring more immune system targets in order to increase efficacy (Abstract 1).
