Developing Effective Immunotherapies for Poorly Immunogenic Cancers…Yes, it is Possible

Presenter: Dr. Udai Kammula

Dr. Kammula's lab focuses on novel approaches to immunotherapies in multiple cancer types, with a focus on melanoma. Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) represents a personalized cancer immunotherapy strategy, targeting shared and unique tumor antigens expressed by a patient’s cancer. Although this therapy was originally developed for metastatic cutaneous melanoma, a highly immune responsive cancer, The Kammula Lab recently showed that TIL therapy can be effective against a variety of poorly immunogenic cancers. Their group was the was the first to utilize TIL therapy for the treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma, a rare and immune resistant cancer with no effective systemic therapies. This experience has served as a valuable blueprint to expand cellular immunotherapies to other cancer types. In this presentation, Dr. Kammula will provide an overview of the scientific rationale for TIL therapy, his recent clinical findings in UM and novel cancer types, and his laboratory’s translational approach to develop more effective cellular immunotherapies for poorly immunogenic cancers. 

Background reading:

• Treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma with adoptive transfer of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes: a single-centre, two-stage, single-arm, phase 2 study
• Metastasectomy for Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes: An Emerging Operative Indication in Surgical Oncology
• Efficacy of adoptive therapy with tumor-infiltrating lymphocyts and recombinant interleukin-2 in advanced cutaneous melanoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis