Course Identification

This course will deal with the cellular and molecular basis of immunity to Cancer. In particular: Immunosurveillance, cellular and humoral immunity and their regulation, Immune escape mechanisms, immune suppressive mechanism, Tumor Associated Antigens (TAAs) detected by Anibodys, TAAs detected by CTL, Active vaccination approaches including whole cell gene modified tumor cells vaccines, whole cell cytokine gene modified tumor cells vaccines, Dendritic cell vaccines, peptide vaccines, protein vaccines, RNA vaccines, DNA vaccines, viral delivery systems including Vaccinia, retroviruses, adenoviruses and others. Passive vaccination approaches, including Antibodies, immunotoxins, bispecific Antibodies, Antibodies to inhibitory and stimulatory check points, Tumor infiltrated lymphocytes (TILs), Natural killer cells (NK), Lymphokine activated killer cells (LAK), Engineered Lymphocytes, CAR transduced Lymphocytes.

Upon successful completion of this course students should be be able to:

1. Demonstrate proficiency in tumor-immune system interactions: Tumor metastases immunosurveillance, T and B cell responses to cancer, immune supressive mechanism, therapeutic strategies, monoclonal antibodies, gene therapy, tumor associated antigens, anti tumor vaccines, immune monitoring in cancer.

Each participant will present 1-2 papers in ~45 minutes. The students will also be required to read before each lesson the papers to be presented so we can have an in-depth discussion.