Course Identification

There are no prerequisites but courses in immunology and cancer might enhance the learning experience of each student.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the arena of anti-cancer treatments; the number of clinically approved drugs, along with the greater number of experimental therapeutics have been constantly increasing. However, relatively large fractions of patients do not respond to the drugs. In addition, these therapeutics frequently have serious side effects (e.g., autoimmunity). 

We will firstly provide introductory lectures to the tumor microbiome and its role in response to immunotherapy. In addition we will introduce immune checkpoint inhibitors and other antibody-based approaches, including bi-specific antibodies, T cell engagers (BITEs), chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, neo-antigens, anti-receptor antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates and therapeutic vaccines that can drive specific T cells responses to tumors. In the next part, participants of the course will present selected publications and lead a group discussion in the format of a journal club.

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to critically read papers dealing with immunotherapy, including mechanism-based studies and reports summarizing clinical trials. The participants will gain a broad knowledge of all currently available strategies that harness antibodies and the patient's immune system.

Majzner, R.G., and Mackall, C.L. (2018). Tumor Antigen Escape from CAR T-cell Therapy. Cancer Discov 8, 1219-1226.

Ribas, A., and Wolchok, J.D. (2018). Cancer immunotherapy using checkpoint blockade. Science (New York, N Y ) 359, 1350-1355.