On Sept. 25 and 26, Seattle Children’s Research Institute will host the 4th International Conference on Immunotherapy in Pediatric Oncology (CIPO2015), “Examining the Emerging Therapeutic Potential of Immunotherapy in Pediatric Oncology.” This two-day program brings together scientists and healthcare leaders from around the world to discuss the latest immunotherapy research in the field of pediatric oncology.
“We expect to bring together hundreds of national and international oncology and immunology professionals with the goal of providing opportunities for scientific exchange, collaboration, problem-solving and mentoring,” said Dr. Mike Jensen, director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “The conference will provide a venue to present new data and explore emerging concepts in an effort to bring immune-based therapies to more children with pediatric cancer.”
The conference will also provide opportunities for collaboration among basic, clinical and translational researchers and address challenges in developing immune-based therapies for children including issues related to drug development and regulatory requirements.
A gathering of experts
An international lineup of presenters from organizations such as Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s University Hospital in Germany, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center will evaluate new data on immune-based therapies at the conference, analyzing the challenges of developing these therapies and assessing issues related to drug development and regulatory requirements for immunotherapies.
“Immunotherapy is the most active area in cancer research today,” said Dr. Crystal Mackall, chief of Pediatric Oncology at the National Cancer Institute. “New immunotherapies have shown activity against a variety of cancers, including childhood cancer. This meeting will bring together experts in the field of immunotherapy for childhood cancer and will provide attendees with a state-of-the-art picture of this rapidly emerging field.”
Keynote speakers will include Drs. Jensen and Philip Greenberg, head of the Program in Immunology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
“Dr. Greenberg and I have been working together for more than a decade to study how immunotherapy might be a safer and more effective treatment of different cancers compared to long-term chemotherapy or radiation,” Jensen said. “We look forward to sharing our recent research findings and discussing what the future might hold for cancer immunotherapy.”
Additional presenters from cancer research centers throughout the world will share their progress in developing cancer immunotherapies for children with cancer. Dr. Leonid Metelitsa, a pediatric oncologist at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, will be discussing the role of Natural Killer T cells in controlling tumor-supportive inflammation and how this unique subset of innate lymphocytes can be used for immunotherapy of neuroblastoma and other pediatric malignancies.
“This is the only international meeting that is exclusively dedicated to immunobiology and immunotherapy of pediatric cancer,” Metelitsa said. “Since the majority of pediatric malignancies originate from different tissues than those in adults and often have unique genetic and epigenetic abnormalities, development of effective cancer immunotherapy for children is impossible without knowledge of these differences.”
CIPO2015 will be held at The Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. Attendees can register online now.
Call for abstracts
Seattle Children’s Research Institute invites scientific and healthcare professionals to submit an abstract to be considered for podium or poster presentation at the conference.
Submissions can be made through May 1, 2015.
Resources:
- Seattle Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
- Seattle Children’s Leukemia Cancer Trials
- Seattle Children’s Cancer Clinical Trials
- Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research
