Immunotherapy

Although flares and immune-related adverse effects due to checkpoint inhibitor therapy can be frequent and potentially severe, they are “mostly manageable” without the need for discontinuation among patients with preexisting autoimmune diseases, according to data published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Immatics Biotechnologies, a Germany-based biopharma company, has entered into a strategic agreement with Celgene on the development of new adoptive cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, according to a company press release.

Two researchers will share the 2019 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles that spotlight research efforts supported through Cancer Research Institute’s Lloyd J. Old STAR program. The program provides up to $1.25 million over a 5-year period to mid-career scientists who pursue high-risk, high-reward research in cancer immunotherapy.

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer has elected three new members to its board of directors who will begin their three-year terms in January 2020.

On Wednesday, the Trump Administration made chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy available to all Medicare beneficiaries via a long-awaited final coverage decision made by the CMS.

The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, in collaboration with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Helmsley Charitable Trust, have formed a cancer and diabetes research initiative to better understand the association between immunotherapy treatment and subsequent risk for type 1 diabetes.

NCI awarded a 5-year, $11 million grant to NYU Langone Health’s Ronald O. Perelman department of dermatology to develop biomarkers that can predict whether immunotherapy will be effective for specific patients.

Researchers are preparing to launch a phase 3 trial evaluating a dendritic cell-based immunotherapy known as DCVAC after phase 2 data showed the addition of DCVAC to chemotherapy significantly improved OS among women with ovarian carcinoma.

Healio spoke with Jerome Strauss III, MD, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University, emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and chair of the Committee on the State of the Science in Ovarian Cancer Research, about the committee’s 2016 report on paradigm shifts in research and care, changes in the field since the report, and important areas that need more attention.