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.
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).
Dario Vignali, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, summarizes his Keynote Address, which covered what drives systemic immune dysfunction in patients with cancer, what promotes inhibitory receptor expression, and what limits the persistence of antigen-specific T cells.
John N. Lukens, MD, of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his finding that taking antibiotics within 3 months of starting treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors may lead to inferior overall survival in patients with stage III or IV melanoma. The antibiotics were also linked to a higher incidence of severe immune-mediated colitis (Abstract 56).
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).
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).
