A beginner’s guide to immunotherapy

Wednesday 05 June 2019, Royal Marsden Hospital, London

Level: Intermediate

Audience: Ideal for anyone with an A level or equivalent understanding of cell biology and genetics and who works with cancer patients, data or treatments.

Description: In this half-day course (repeated Morning and afternoon) I describe the logic behind many immunotherapy-based cancer treatments such as checkpoint inhibitors (ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab, atezolizumab, durvalumab), adoptive cell transfer (CAR T cell therapy, infiltrating T cells), and vaccine-based treatments (peptide and DNA vaccines, oncolytic viruses, dendritic cell vaccines).

To book, contact:  conferenceteam@rmh.nhs.uk or call: 020 7808 2922

Programme

The relationship between cancer and the immune system
  • How cancer cells thrive alongside white blood cells
  • The immune-suppressing cancer environment
Introduction to checkpoint inhibitors
  • Checkpoint proteins on T cells
  • Antibodies that target CTLA-4
  • Antibodies that target PD-1 and PD-L1
  • Successes so far: malignant melanoma, lung cancer, kidney cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck cancer, bladder cancer
Introduction to adoptive cell transfer methods
  • CAR T cell therapy for acute leukaemia and other cancers
  • Infiltrating T cell therapy for malignant melanoma
Introduction to vaccine-based treatments
  • Peptide- and DNA-based vaccines
  • Oncolytic viruses including T-VEC
  • Dendritic cell vaccines
Immunotherapy
  • Where have we got to?
  • Where are we going?